Realizations of a Malfoy
by Kaitie McDonahue
Summary: Sequel to Infinitely Less,Obviously More. Scorpius and Rose are now living happily with their family, but when a new outbreak of Death Eater-like activities targets closer and closer to home, can they survive the casualties it causes in their relationship?
1. Prologue

Draco Malfoy sat at his desk, fuming.

His father had just committed suicide. It wasn't a Romeo suicide, death because he couldn't go on without someone. It was an Antigone suicide. Lucius Malfoy killed himself because he couldn't go on without his 'innocence': his way of life. Without the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters, he didn't know how to live. So he decided to get out of it.

His death was grisly. He hadn't used the Killing Curse on himself, as would have been easiest and least painful. No, he'd painted the Dark Mark on his chest, cast a Silencio on himself and then stabbed himself in the gut with a dagger that had been in the Malfoy family since the early nineteenth century. The blood had pooled, and Lucius had strained his vocal cords screaming out against the pain. But no sound had come out of his mouth, and he had fallen to the floor, death framing his body like a rogue angel hovering over him. The blood had stained his long, almost white-blond hair, creating a Devil's halo.

Narcissa had collapsed; fainted, when she'd seen. Draco had thrown up. Astoria was still crying her heart out in the bedroom upstairs while Draco sat in his office. No one else had been told yet, save the emergency healers who had responded, and Harry Potter who'd been the Auror looking into Lucius Malfoy's death, due to the fact that Lucius had painted the Dark Mark on himself and because he'd rolled up the sleeve on his left arm to show the real one tattooed there.

Draco didn't feel much of anything besides anger. He didn't feel the loss of his father. Truthfully, Lucius's mind had died far before his body. But it wasn't Draco's father's suicide that made him so angry. It was his will. A will that proved Draco wasn't an only child.

Lucius Malfoy had had an affair. One that had produced a son, a rival heir to the Malfoy fortune.

Draco had already inherited the fortune. There was no rivalry for him. But for Scorpius, that was another story. And Scorpius had no sons to pass the fortune down to; three daughters, instead.

This man, this brother of Draco's, had even been given a constellation name, the trademark of the Black family even though he was, in no way, Black. Ophiuchus. It meant 'serpent-bearer'. Serpent, Slytherin. Lucius had practically considered him a part of the Malfoy family, not just an unfortunate accident that had resulted from one of his many affairs. He'd received a constellation name. It was a mark of a true member of the Malfoy, or Black, family. That or a Shakespearean name. And Draco couldn't believe that Lucius had done this.

And in this will, it stated that Ophiuchus was in line to inherit, after Scorpius, providing that Scorpius did not produce a son. Draco could change his own will to fit what they wanted, and to barricade Ophiuchus out of the family forever, but it was difficult. Too difficult to do without lots of outside aid and attention. It would alert mostly everyone, certainly Ophiuchus would notice. And that would not do.

No, Draco would have to figure out a way to alert Scorpius of the new threat. Because, right now, if Scorpius and Draco were to die, Ophiuchus would inherit absolutely everything. It would be like Hamlet, in that sense. Ophiuchus would inherit not only Malfoy manor and the fortune, but Astoria, Rose, Scorpius's and Rose's daughters, and Narcissa. Who was to say that Ophiuchus wouldn't do what Hamlet's Uncle Claudius had done?

No, Draco would fix this. Because he was not going to lose everything all over again. Not to some stupid, archaic, medieval contract drawn up to make sure that men held all the power. He was going to change it and 'flow' with the times. A first, for the Malfoy family. And he was going to do it all to protect his family.

Draco had had a private investigator that had worked for the Malfoy family for decades find out everything there was to know about Ophiuchus. And he was said to be a cruel, sadistic, cunning man. He'd do anything to get the fortune and everything that came along with it. And he'd use the people he and Scorpius cared about to do it.


	2. Chapter 1

Scorpius walked into Harry Potter's office, wary of the urgency in the voice of the stag patronus he'd received moments earlier.

"Ah, Scorpius, good, you're here," Harry said, seated behind his desk. He gestured for Scorpius to take the empty seat next to Ron Weasley.

Scorpius sat down and watched his father-in-law swallow audibly and Harry take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose before putting them back on.

"Er, sir, what's going on?" Scorpius asked tentatively.

Harry sighed. "We have a new case to check out." He tossed a fat file on his desk in front of Scorpius. Scorpius picked it up and his eyes widened as he read it.

"There's been an outbreak of attacks on muggleborns and so-called blood traitors," Harry said. "They all have the same markings on them when they were found, mostly by muggle police. They didn't understand how they'd died. But that's understandable; the Killing Curse leaves no trace. Every single victim had a mark on them, though. It was a skull with a snake coming out of the mouth." Harry took a breath. "It looked way too much like the Dark Mark to be a coincidence. We've been thinking, and we've come to the conclusion that they are most likely a recently founded group of Voldemort supporters, radicals."

Scorpius nodded, looking at the pictures of the victims. They were bloodied, and grotesque. Every single victim's eyes were open and staring at the camera. They all had a huge skull with a slithering snake peeking out of the mouth tattooed and painted on the victim's chest. It was horrifying.

"I don't really need to explain what we need to do," Harry said. "Ron and I are putting a team together to work on this. We need to keep it quiet. I want you to take a look at this file and try to get some ideas. We need to know where they're coming from, how many there are, what they're purpose is, the usual. Keep it under wraps. The family will obviously know, but try not to scare them, just make them more aware. We're all targets in this," Harry said and Ron nodded gravely, thinking of before. "Tell Rose, but don't scare her. The Malfoys are sure to be big targets with these guys, since you've changed your beliefs since the war immeasurably."

"Rose! Mia! Cassie! Kate!" Scorpius called to his four favorite girls, taking off his coat in the entry way and dropping his briefcase on the little bench.

"Daddy!" Kate's voice rang down the stairs.

"We're up here!" Rose called.

Scorpius grinned and ran up the stairs into the bathroom, where Rose had three little girls in the bathtub, covered in soap, though probably not as covered in bubbles and as drenched as Rose was.

She was dripping wet and pouting, trying to control a smile from escaping her lips. But she eventually caved and was laughing, their three daughters cackling along with her.

"Hey, honey," Scorpius walked over and kissed Rose quickly, ending up with bubbles all over him. "Girls," Scorpius tried to frown but couldn't do it.

"Daddy, we had a bubble fight!" Cassie said.

"They poured water all over me," Kate pouted, looking exactly like a much younger version of her mother with sopping wet red hair, big blue eyes, and pouting lips.

"That's kind of the point of a bath, sweetheart," Scorpius ruffled his youngest daughter's hair, making her giggle and reach for him. Scorpius went to pick her up and out of the bath but Rose moved in to block.

"Uh-oh, no you don't," she said. "You haven't finished your bath yet, missy."

"I'm done!" Mia stood up and got out of the tub once she had gained her mum's approval.

Rose wrapped a towel around her. "Will you finish bathing Cassie and Kate? I promised Mia I'd help her find her favorite PJs," Rose asked him.

"Sure," Scorpius nodded.

"We're going to find the daisy pajamas!" Mia exclaimed, beaming. They were her favorite pajamas and they had daisies all over them, hence why she'd dubbed them the daisy pajamas. Mia absolutely loved daisies. They were her favorite flowers. She'd found them in the garden at the Burrow and Rose had weaved her a wreath of daisies to put on her head as a crown. Ever since then, Mia squealed with delight when she saw them. It was like Rose was with pansies.

Scorpius washed Cassie's and Kate's hair and finished up their bath. He got them into bed and they were fast asleep almost instantaneously. Kate was curled up around her stuffed dragon that Charlie had given her when she was born, in her crib, and Cassie was lying on the bottom bunk beneath Mia, sucking her thumb, while Mia was sprawled out across the twin bed in her usual restless sleep.

Scorpius snuck downstairs and joined Rose on the couch. She was flipping channels on the TV and he snuck in and pressed his lips onto hers, giving her a thorough 'thank God I'm home and thank God you're here' kiss.

"So, how was your day?" Scorpius asked. Rose sighed and snuggled into her husband's chest as he wrapped an arm around her and stole the remote.

"I finally broke this curse around Anne Boleyn's gravestone. Tomorrow the historians and a few of the curse breakers are going to tear apart some history so that they can discover whether or not she was a real witch or someone else just put some curses around her grave." Rose huffed. She enjoyed discovering everything that had happened, but she hated how they had to destroy a few things to find the knowledge. "You?"

Scorpius blew out a breath. "New case. A group of possible Death Eaters are attacking muggleborns and 'blood traitors', leaving a crude imitation of the Dark Mark behind on their victims. Apparently we're targets now, since the Malfoys changed so much. Your dad and uncle briefed me. They're putting together a team and apparently I'm the first recruit."

"Congrats on getting on the case, but that absolutely blows about the people who died," Rose said. "Do you think you'll catch them?" Rose had learned over the six years since they'd had Mia how to pretend that the awful things Scorpius's job dealt with didn't affect her. She knew how to make it appear that she wasn't cringing and feeling sick to her stomach inside behind the façade. It helped her cope with the fact that her husband was surrounded by danger everyday.

Scorpius shrugged. "I haven't really gotten a chance to look over the file yet. I'm going to start doing that tomorrow at work."

"What time are you going in?"

"About eight-ish."

"Ish?" Rose raised her eyebrows suggestively and moved to straddle her husband.

Scorpius groaned and his lips delved onto her neck. Rose's head lolled back. "Ugh, why don't we do this more often?" she asked.

Scorpius chuckled and looked up at her. "You're really asking that? There are three reasons. And their names are Hermia, Cassiopeia, and Katharine."

"And they're all asleep upstairs," Rose argued, smiling.

"They are also all accidental products of just what we're about to do now," Scorpius reminded her. "I think we have some fertility issues."

Rose made a face. "Ew. That word is icky."

Scorpius grinned. "What word? Fertility?" Rose made another face. "Oh, so it grosses you out?" Scorpius raised his eyebrows and started tickling Rose.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Rose giggled, kicking.

"Fertility, fertility, fertility!" Scorpius chanted, tickling Rose more and more, her squeals and giggles getting louder and louder.

"I guess this is the wrong time to drop in on your guys?" Albus's voice floated to them from the fireplace.

Scorpius and Rose looked up and hastily jumped away from each other.

"Hey, Al," Rose smiled and looked at her favorite cousin and other best friend. "What's up? It's kind of late to be flooing, ain't it?"

Scorpius chuckled. "Your grammar has gotten so bad, Rose."

Rose stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Al. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to see if you guys and my favorite goddaughters were coming to my match this Friday," Al said.

"Yeah, we'll be there," Scorpius said immediately.

"They're James's goddaughters, too, and Lily's, and Victoire's," Rose reminded him before adding, "And do we ever miss a match?"

"Well, there was the time when Cassie was born, and the time when Mia got the chicken pox, and the time when-"

"Yeah, yeah, we got it," Rose interrupted. "You don't have children so you don't understand."

Al scoffed. "I love my girls, but that doesn't mean I want to clean up their sick or handle their temper tantrums. I just get to spoil them."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, and spoil them you do. But, for the record, Kate has had one tantrum so far in her entire two years and Mia hasn't had a temper tantrum for almost a year."

"Cassie?" Al asked.

"Well, you know her," Scorpius said. "I don't believe she's ever had a tantrum."

"Anyways," Al cut in, "before you start ranting about your children…you're coming to the game?"

"Yes, we're coming," Rose said, exasperated. "And the rest of the family?"

Al grinned. "Every single one of the rambunctious Weasleys, Lupins, Potters, and various families our cousins have married into."

"Speaking of marriage," Rose started and Al rolled his eyes, "met any nice girls lately?"

"Rose," Al sighed, exasperated.

Rose's eyes lit up. "I know this really nice girl, Heather, she'd be perfect for you!"

Al groaned. "Merlin, Rose! I swear, you and my mum have met every girl in London and want to set me up with each and every one of them!"

"Actually Al, she lives in Bath, hate to break it to you," Rose smirked. "And you just like going to pubs with all the guys on the team and leaving with a different girl every night."

Scorpius sat back on his heels, officially exiting the conversation. He knew where this one was going.

"Rose, do not set me up with anyone! And I do not leave with a different girl _every _night! _And _for your information, I've already met someone. Well, re-met someone. I've been seeing her for the past three months, so give it up already, Rose!"

Or maybe he didn't know.

"You met someone?" Rose gasped. "Who is she? Tell me!"

Al chuckled. "Nope, I'm just going to let you stew about it. I'll see you guys on Friday." Al's head disappeared from the fireplace.

Rose 'hmphed' and crossed her arms. "I can't believe he's not going to tell me."

"Hmm, I'm not surprised," Scorpius said, making his way over to his wife. "Where were we?" he asked, kissing along her jaw.

"Actually, Scorp, you were tickling me, not _trying_ to seduce me."

Scorpius smirked. "Do I really need to _try_?"

"God! Why is it that every time I come into this house you two are doing something like this!" Draco Malfoy shouted, horrified, as he walked through the front door.

Rose screamed and darted to the side, away from view, like she did every time this happened.

"It might not happen if you actually knock when you come over," Scorpius said dryly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Scorpius, we need to talk." Draco's voice was so deadly serious that Scorpius actually felt nervous. Draco was paler than normal and he looked like he hadn't slept or shaved in weeks. "It's about your uncle."

"I don't have an uncle," said Scorpius, utterly confused.

Draco slapped a picture down on the coffee table, in front of Rose and Scorpius.

Rose felt dizzy as she looked at all the blood, the distorted figure of Lucius Malfoy. Scorpius grabbed her elbow to steady her and wrapped his other arm around her waist, even as he was close to vomiting.

"What happened?" he finally asked.

"Supposedly a suicide," Draco said, desperately trying to keep his voice calm, and not to betray any emotion. "But some things don't line up. And we think we know who it was."

All of a sudden, Scorpius realized that the idea that Malfoys were targets for any sort of crime made a lot more sense.


	3. Chapter 2

Scorpius couldn't wrap his mind around it. His grandfather was dead. Lucius was dead.

The man who had tried to instill all sorts of Death Eater values in him. The man who'd burst into his and Rose's wedding and demanded for everyone to leave because the wedding wasn't going to take place. But this was also the same man who'd given Scorpius his first broom and told him to ride it as often as he could, especially when sneaking out of the house was necessary. To a four year old Scorpius, he'd seemed like the perfect grandfather.

And no matter what he believed, he didn't deserve this death. Suicide or not. No one deserved to end the way Lucius had. People had been killed in more gruesome ways, Scorpius should know, he'd seen the pictures and dealt with their murderers everyday, but they weren't his grandfather. He knew things like this would happen when he walked into work, but he thought that when he got home it was an escape from that.

Scorpius didn't want to associate his girls with murder. It was why he always left his work at work and never brought it home with him. He couldn't stand to have all that horrific death and crime with him as baggage when he came home and hugged his daughters or kissed Rose. He knew he was helping people; he knew he was making a difference, improving lives. And that was why he did it. Because he wanted justice, fairness. He wanted to keep people safe and give them better lives and a safer world to live in. But the road to get there was rocky, and he wasn't going to drag his family into potholes with him.

And that was just where Lucius had obviously been. In a huge pothole that looked like it had been caused by an earthquake. And he was dragging Scorpius with him, Scorpius thought ruefully as he looked at the half empty firewhisky bottle he'd been consuming.

"Scorpius?" a soft voice called into the darkness.

"Lumos," Scorpius muttered, his wand tip illuminating the area so that Rose could find her way over to him.

She looked around the room as she made her way over. "Okay, I definitely agreed with you when you wanted to redo the basement into your office. It meant less clutter for me to trip over in the rest of the house. But sitting here, brooding and drinking in the dark, I really didn't agree with." Rose plopped down on top of the desk in front of him and took the bottle out of his hand and set it down on the other side of the desk.

Scorpius closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, putting his hands over his eyes and exhaling deeply. "Rose, I just…"

"It's okay," she put her hand on his knee.

Scorpius shook his head. "No, it's not. Whatever he was like, he didn't deserve this. He did before, but he changed. He changed, Rose. He did," Scorpius pleaded with her to understand.

"That's not what I meant," Rose said. "I meant that it's okay to be sad, okay to talk about it. You don't have to just sit here in the dark and mourn all alone."

"I'm not mourning," Scorpius said harshly, more to himself than to Rose.

They were quiet for a moment.

"What do you want to tell the girls?" Rose asked.

Scorpius shrugged. "I don't care. Grandfather was awful to them, to you. He might not have hurt anyone anymore, but he probably wanted to."

"Stop, Scorp, don't say such horrible things about him. He had the potential to be a good man."

Scorpius scoffed. "Rosie, it's just," Scorpius blew out a breath, "I can't deal with this right now. If this is connected to the case, then whoever is doing this could come after you and the girls, next. Or my mum or dad or any of your family." What he didn't say was that he was pretty damn positive it was connected. Lucius had had the same painting of the Dark Mark on his chest that the other victims had. Scorpius had already alerted Harry and Ron, not daring to waste any time on finding out what might have happened and continuing to happen.

Rose stepped off the desk and sat herself on the floor, pulling Scorpius down next to her and into her arms. "We'll be fine, I promise."

"You can't promise stuff like that. Especially after-" Scorpius stopped suddenly and Rose sucked in a gulp of air. They didn't talk about this. They avoided it like the Bubonic plague.

"Scorp," Rose breathed and sighed, leaning into him. "It won't happen."

"You don't know what people will do," he said. Rose gave him a look. "Well, you do," he amended. "But I don't want you to have to go through it again. And I am never ever going to let that happen to Mia, Cassie, or Kate."

Rose brushed some of Scorpius's hair away from his face. "You can't protect them from everything, honey. And it won't happen to them."

"I'm sure you said the same thing to yourself before you got raped, too," Scorpius spat angrily. "Kidnappers, murderers, they'll do anything to achieve their means. And you four are _not_ going to be used to get them there."

Rose kissed her husband tenderly on the forehead, and then on the lips. "We'll be safe. We've been safe for the rest of your cases, what makes this one so different?"

"Because your dad and uncle warned me that all the Malfoys were in danger. Don't you understand that that means you? Six years, Rose, that's how long you've been a Malfoy, and you still don't really get it. We're marked. Always, forever."

"No, we're not," Rose said fiercely. "Don't you dare think so ill of _our _name. The names of your _daughters_. We're all equal."

Scorpius smirked. "Is that why when there's a bomb threat in the U.S. and the president's near there, the president is the first one to get out and not any normal people? It seems to me that if we were all equal then we'd all be able to get out. Survival of the fittest, you know?"

"I think you contradicted yourself in that little speech there," Rose said, smirking a little bit, which caused Scorpius to wring his hands together, close his eyes, groan, and fall back onto the ground, lying down in front of Rose.

"Why are you worrying so much about this one, anyways?" Rose asked, playing with Scorpius's hair.

Scorpius shrugged, but seeing as how he was lying down, it didn't work out and made Rose giggle. "Look at the pictures, of my grandfather."

Rose looked around for the photographs and found them on his desk. She brought them down onto the ground in front of her. "What am I looking for?"

Scorpius rolled over and pointed to a spot with a tiny smudge right over Lucius's shoulder. Rose looked more closely and saw that it wasn't _over_ Lucius's shoulder, it was _on_ his shoulder. And faintly on his chest, too.

"What is that?"

"The dark mark. The imitation of it that has been found on all the victims in the case I'm working on. And it's on him."

"Mia, you have to go to school," Scorpius said sternly, giving Rose a not-so covert look saying, 'help me'.

"But I don't want to," Mia pouted.

It was Monday morning and Mia was determined to make Monday a part of the weekend.

"But you have to," Scorpius said. "Won't Mrs. Henderson miss you?"

Mia frowned. "She doesn't like me. And no one else does either."

That was when Rose decided to intervene.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, bending down to Mia's height. "You have tons of friends! You're friends with Claire, and Hilary, and Jessie, and what about Alex?"

"Alex isn't in my class this year," Mia said. "He was in my _kindergarten _class, not my _first grade_ class," she stressed, as if it were the most important thing in the world.

Scorpius bit back a smile.

"Yes he is, Mia," Rose said. "He was on vacation with his parents up until this week. Hon, you've only been in school for three days. Don't worry, it'll be completely fine."

"He's in my class?" Mia's face lit up as she grinned and it looked like she'd just discovered how good hot fudge sauce tastes on ice cream for the first time. Rose could swear she heard Scorpius growl.

Rose nodded, smiling. "Yeah, his mum told me that he was in your class just before they went on vacation. He'll be there today."

"Okay!" Mia said, picking up her backpack and putting it on. "Aren't we going to go?" she tapped her foot impatiently, something she must've learned from Rose.

"Hold on a second, I have to get Cassie and Kate ready, honey. And you know we always drop Cassie off at preschool first," Rose said, switching Cassie's shoes around so she'd put them on the right feet.

"How come Cassie gets to go to school with Muggles but I don't?" Mia wanted to know.

Scorpius planted a kiss on his eldest daughter's head as he put his coat on. "Because you, when you get frustrated, shoot sparks from your fingertips. Don't you think that that would confuse the muggles?"

"Well, yeah…" Mia admitted, shrugging a little bit and drawing designs on the front hall carpet with her foot.

Scorpius grinned, hugged Cassie, swung Kate around, planted a kiss on Rose's lips which lasted much longer than should have, judging by the fact that Mia squealed, "Eww," and Cassie giggled, "Aww".

"I will see you all tonight," Scorpius said, picking up his briefcase as Rose straightened his tie.

"Dinner at the Burrow, tonight," Rose reminded him, then laughed as she realized the scene before them. Scorpius looked at her quizzically and she said, "This is the picture of domesticity, ain't it?"

Scorpius grinned. "It was until you said 'ain't'. I'll see you girls later," he said before he skipped out the door.

Rose smiled as she picked Kate up and grabbed Cassie's hand, ushering Mia out the door in front of them. Who knew she would've liked this life? Sure, it might be missing all the adventure she'd dreamed of having, but she had a different kind of adventure, now.


	4. Chapter 3

"Rose, where are you?" Lily asked on the other line of the phone.

"In the grocery store. This is just obnoxious," Rose grumbled. "Hey! Lady! That was _my _can of soup!"

Lily laughed. "Honestly, Rose, you are dangerous anywhere!"

"It's not my fault. I think it's genetic."

"Mummy!" Kate said from the seat in the shopping cart, pointing at an aisle filled with cookies.

"Ooh, don't mind if I do," Rose said, turning down the aisle.

"You just turned down the cookie aisle, didn't you?" Victoire asked, the third person on their three-way call.

"Pshh…maybe?"

Lily and Victoire laughed. "Now I know why Claire has such a sweet tooth," Vic said. "It's all due to what you fed her when you babysitted."

"It's not my fault that the only thing I can cook are mint Milanos…from the bag. In my defense she really, really liked them. They had calories! They're good for you, right? Or is that cholesterol?"

"They're both bad, Rose," Lily said.

"Oh, oops. I'm sorry I damaged your daughter's health, Vic," Rose said, picking up a bag of the aforementioned mint Milanos and depositing them in the cart, making Kate squeal with happiness. "Hey, what do you two know about Al's new girl? He said it just said it was an old flame and that was all."

Rose could practically hear Victoire shrug. "We're you expecting for me to know?" she asked.

"I just really want to know," Rose practically whined.

Lily gasped. "I thought you'd know! He hasn't told me anything about her either! But guess what I do know?"

"What?" Rose and Victoire chorused.

"He's bringing her to dinner tonight!"

"Yes!" she and Victoire said.

"What do you think she's like?" Rose was now at the check-out counter and getting weird looks from the woman who was scanning her food.

"Knowing Al, she probably has more cleavage than brains," Lily said.

"Lily!" Victoire admonished. "You're on speakerphone and Claire _and _Remus just heard you."

"Psh, it's not like they know what it means. And for the record, I still don't understand why you don't call Claire Dora. After all, you did name her Nymphadora. How come you don't call her that?" Lily said.

"Because she never answered to it! And besides, her middle name is Claire. Lots of people call their kids by their middle names," Victoire said defensively.

Rose chuckled. This argument had the power to continue for hours. "Alright, ladies, I've got to go. Me and Miss Kate are going by Scorpius's office to surprise him for lunch after I put all those annoying groceries away."

"Aw," Lily swooned. "I wish I had a Scorpius."

Rose chuckled. "No you don't. I don't think our families would be able to deal with two of us knocked up at seventeen. Uncle Harry would've positively _died_."

"Yeah, well," Victoire interjected, "we all thought that Uncle Ron was going to go berserk."

"I'm going now. Good-bye. I am refusing to discuss this topic anymore," Rose said, but she was smiling.

"Bye, see you tonight."

"Bye, darling!"

"Knock, knock," Rose's voice came from the doorway. Scorpius looked up from the file and slammed it shut as he saw Kate clinging piggy-back style to Rose.

"Hey," Scorpius smiled and got up and swung Kate around. Rose grinned as she remembered how he'd often done that to her.

Kate giggled. "Daddy!" Scorpius thought his heart melted as he cuddled the little girl into his chest, and she clambered onto his shoulders. "How did she do that?" Scorpius asked Rose.

"She's become a little monkey, lately." Rose smiled. "Hi," she sighed exasperatedly and kissed him quickly. She started to pull back but Scorpius moaned his protest and pulled her closer again, hanging on.

"Mummy?" Kate said, interrupting, wanting to be the center of attention as most two-year-olds do.

Rose broke away from Scorpius and picked Kate up off Scorpius's shoulders and into her arms.

"So what did you guys do this morning?" Scorpius asked.

"Whe whernth grothcerys sthophing," Kate grinned. Scorpius looked at Rose helplessly for the translation.

"We went grocery shopping," Rose said. "We thought we'd come surprise you for lunch."

"Aw, you did, did you?" Scorpius said and tossed Kate up in the air a few times, her giggles and shrieks carrying to outside Scorpius's office where Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were walking by.

"Knock, knock," Harry said, poking his head in and pushing the door open, him and Ron entering.

"Hey, favorite youngest granddaughter!" Ron said, plucking Kate out of Scorpius's arms. She grinned and gave him a slobbery kiss on the cheek and gurgled, "Hi Grahnpah!"

"Hey, I want to say hi to my grand-niece!" Harry said, taking Kate from Ron and receiving the same wet kiss on the cheek that Ron had.

"I feel so unloved," Rose joked.

"Oh, hey honey, I didn't really see you there," Ron responded with a quirky smile before hugging his daughter. "What are you two doing here?"

"We came over to surprise Scorpius for lunch. I figured you two were being all tyrannical and not letting him out," Rose smirked, chuckling.

"Aw, c'mon, it's not our fault he never leaves!" Ron said.

"He likes his job way too much if you ask me," Harry put in. "And I'm the head of the department!"

"Yes, and about this job, we were just coming to get you, Scorpius," Ron said. "Sorry, but that jellyfish case trial was moved to right now and we have to go."

"Jellyfish case trial?" Rose asked.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Scorpius said.

"No, I really don't," Rose shook her head.

"Mummy!" Kate squirmed in Harry's arms and reached for Rose.

"Alright, well, we'll just go then," Rose said dejectedly, taking Kate from Harry.

Scorpius frowned. "I'll be home as soon as I can."

Rose shrugged. "It's fine." Rose put Kate into the stroller and grabbed her bag and the diaper bag, kissed Scorpius on the cheek, hugged her dad and her uncle and left, trying not to be upset.

"Is it just me, or did it get a lot colder in here after I said jellyfish case trial?" Rose heard Ron say as she left.

It wasn't that she was upset about not being able to go to lunch. It was that every time she tried to get Scorpius away from his job, something got in the way. He was always thinking about work. And she was afraid that this new Death Eater – wannabe cult case was going to make it worse.

"Mummy, where Daddee?" Kate asked, squirming in the stroller trying to see Rose.

"He has to work, honey, I'm sorry," Rose said. "How about we go get some lunch and see if Uncle Al can play? Then we can all go to Nana's and Grandpa's for dinner."

"Unca Al!" Kate clapped her hands delightedly.


	5. Chapter 4

"Is she here, yet?" Dominique leaned over Molly's shoulder to peer at the door.

"Nope," James smirked. "You all just need to learn how to be patient. It's not like we don't all bring girls here."

"Yes, but _Al_ doesn't – and with the ones we've seen him with he definitely shouldn't, either," Lily said, settling herself down on the couch between Dominique and Lucy.

"Don't you remember that time he brought the girl home who asked if the silver thing on the toilet was the thing that flushed it?" James said, as if he was proving a point to something extremely complex and unsolvable.

The rest of the room just looked at him.

"I think that just proved my point," Lily said. "And besides, Al shooed her out of there so fast after she said that. Dad couldn't look at him for a week without bursting out in laughter."

Rose leaned back against the wall, rubbing her shoulders on the molding. They had been trying to guess Al's mystery girl for half an hour now. Scorpius was still at work, as was Al, and Victoire was helping Nana and most of the aunts in the kitchen. Rose and Lily just about had a permanent ban from the kitchen. They'd always ended up starting food fights and no matter how many times Hermione had said that they were adults now and should act like them, especially Rose, it just didn't happen. Aunt Ginny was always game to join in, though.

"Where are the kids?" James asked.

"They're all outside," Rose said. "Except Kate and Remus; they're both taking naps. Dom, where's Tom?"

Dominique waved her hand in the air, as if to say her fiance was somewhere, hopefully not missing or dead. "He should be here soon," she said, before taking a large gulp of firewhisky, making James and Rose glance at each other.

"So, who wants to get a game of Quidditch started?" Teddy walked in to the cramped living room.

Rose jumped up, eager to get back in the game. She felt like she hadn't flown in forever. She was just itching to score some goals on Hugo, who was outside trying to coerce Claire, Mia, and Cassie to play something other than hide and seek.

Four goals later, three of which Rose scored (the other was Lily), Arthur rushed outside. "Everyone's here, kids, we're going to get started eating, now!"

Lily and Rose glanced at each other, sharing a significant look. That meant that Al was there. With his mystery girl.

* * *

Everyone was staring. They just couldn't help it. She was nothing like his usual girlfriends. Rose vaguely remembered her from school, about their fourth or fifth year. The two of them had fought, broken up, and made up over and over again. They'd fought like Scorpius and Rose and made up like rabbits. Again, a bit like Scorpius and Rose now.

It was Jessie Bones. She wasn't tall, slim, or blonde with a lower IQ than James's OWL scores. She was short, even tinier than Rose, and had a large amount of curly organgey-red hair, which had made Harry laugh, thinking about the 'Potter' curse of falling in love with redheads.

She couldn't stop smiling, either. She chatted and talked about everything from Charlie's dragons to her work as a Healer. Jessie had brains, she always had.

Rose had a sneaking suspicion that Jessie was the reason Al had gone for all the bimbos. He seemed to have sworn off actual real girlfriends after her. And he'd still liked her all this time. Rose kept wanting to just take the mickey out of him.

"And then, he crashed into the sandwich cart, screaming about how one day he'd spray bubutober pus over all of us!" Jessie finished the story, everyone cracking up all around the table. Ginny caught Rose's eye and winked. Everyone liked this girl.

And no matter how great Jessie was and how much of a fresh breath of air, Scorpius still hadn't arrived and Rose was getting worried. Harry and Ron were seated on one end of the table, discussing something in hushed tones with Ginny next to Harry, repeatedly bashing his arm, trying to get him to pay attention to the rest of the family.

Rose cut the chicken up on Kate's plate into tiny pieces, turning to do the same for Cassie on her other side. Al gave her a smile and cute up Mia's across from her, Rose unable to reach it. She could swear Jessie gave Al a tender smile as he did so.

Rose's knife cut fiercely and Kate said, "Mummy, uhr gohnna cuh tha playt!"

Rose looked down and say that, indeed, she'd cut through the chicken and was scratching at the plate. She looked back up and saw just about everyone looking at her. She felt her cheeks flame red and ignored the quizzical looks from her family, instead giving Kate the little fork with the butterflies on it.

Cassie leaned over and whispered in Rose's ear, "Mummy, you're acting funny."

"I'm not just acting funny, I _am_ funny," Rose grinned and made a silly face, getting Cassie to giggle and choke slightly on her juice. Rose patted her back until she calmed down.

"Where's Scorpius, Rose?" Lucy asked, ever the oblivious one.

"Um…" Rose said but before she could come up with anything, Lily saved her.

"He couldn't make it. My dad and uncle saddled him with a bucket load of work to do, without really realizing it," she said, smiling. Rose sighed, thankful that Harry and Ron were too much immersed in their own little world to notice she'd said anything about them.

Rose brushed back Kate's bangs from her face and fixed Cassie's napkin on her lap, and told Mia to eat the green beans, not just the cranberry sauce.

But she checked her watch every three seconds, wondering where the heck her husband was.

* * *

Scorpius dropped his coat in the front entrance along with his briefcase. The house was completely silent and dark. He was sure the girls were definitely asleep, but maybe Rose wasn't. She'd always been a night owl.

Scorpius went up the stairs and checked in on the girls in their room. They were fast asleep, all in their usual positions. He closed the door softly behind him and trudged into his room. He shed his clothes and put on pajama bottoms, slipping beneath the covers. He reached over to pull Rose up against him but his hand met air, instead.

Scorpius's heart started to beat faster. He leapt out of the bed and checked went through the house, checking every single room, nook, cranny, and corner he could find. She was nowhere to be found. He found himself back in the girls' room, checking to make sure that they were all okay when he came upon an extra lump in Cassie's bed, curled up against her.

It was Rose. Scorpius sighed and sunk to the floor.

He would never be able to get the image out of his head of Rose collapsing in the entryway to the Heads' dorms, disheveled and sobbing like mad. He would never be able to forget what York had done to her, and he'd always be afraid something equally as bad would happen again.

He leaned over and shook Rose gently. Her eyes blinked blearily and she stared up at him. "Rose?" he whispered.

Rose gently unwound herself from Cassie's blankets and moved lightly around her daughter, careful not to wake her. Rose motioned for Scorpius to follow her and exited them room, closing the door cautiously behind her.

She stared at him, her arms crossed tightly across her chest and her lips pursed, her eyes slightly narrowed and her shoulders squared. Scorpius knew that stance well. Rose was getting ready for a fight.

"Where were you?" she hissed through her teeth.

"I had to stay at work, Rose."

"Couldn't you call me, send an Owl or a Patronous-"

"Light up a flare?" Scorpius bit back.

Rose practically bared her teeth at him. "I was worried, Scorp, for goodness's sakes! That's all! I'm your wife, only God knows why, but I am! Don't you think I deserve to know where you are when you're supposed to be with me and the rest of the family? The girls kept asking after you, and about everyone else! Al brought his girlfriend. Remember Jessie Bones? And what the hell were Uncle Harry and Dad talking about so intently? What's with this case?"

"Rose-" Scorpius said, but Rose just shook her head and stepped around him.

Scorpius followed her into their bedroom and their bed, pulling her resisting body up against him. "I was at the office. I was getting more and more frustrated with this case and I just couldn't get anything done that I was supposed to and so I had to stay later. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Rose mumbled something incoherently and rolled away from Scorpius. Scorpius sighed and turned over, facing away from Rose. She'd forgive him in the morning. Maybe.

**Thanks for reading! Please Review!**


	6. Chapter 5

Kate was fingering a spoonful of mashed potatoes, the spoon held up straight and facing Cassie. Cassie had taken Kate's dragon from her earlier that day and she was still upset. Obviously.

Rose saw what was about to happen, but was too excited about the prospective food fight to stop it. She felt like she was getting more immature with kids, rather than acting like her mother had.

The potatoes flew and hit Cassie right on the nose. She was too shocked to do anything other than stare. Rose smirked and picked up a spoonful of her mashed potatoes and flung them at Kate. It seemed like a better 'punishment' than actually yelling. Considering when Rose had cooked the dinner all she'd wanted to do was have a food fight.

Mia grinned and flung her potatoes at Rose.

And all of a sudden, it was a madhouse.

Mia picked up the plastic boat of gravy and poured it on Cassie, then Kate, and flicked the rest of it at her mum. Kate picked up gobs of potatoes in her hands and started flinging them at her sisters. Rose dumped her water on Cassie and ran away as Cassie got hot on her heels. Mia raced after her and Kate scrambled out of her high chair to join in the running parade around the house. Rose was screaming and giggling madly with the rest of the girls and Mia finally caught up to her, jumping on top of her mum and tackling her to the ground in the backyard.

Cassie and Kate jumped on top of Rose and the three of them tickled her; Rose kicked and squirmed but the three girls were latched on.

Scorpius burst through the front door, hearing screaming. He ran through the house, wand at the ready, only to find the girls on top of Rose - and having fun.

He ran a hand through his hair and sat down, watching his favorite girls have fun with each other.

He needed to control this, this _thing_. He was becoming paranoid. Harry had told him the danger of that. Once an Auror, always an Auror, he'd said. Scorpius was constantly thinking something bad was happening whenever he didn't know where anyone and everyone was.

It was this case. This damn case. It was hitting way too close to home. His grandfather's death had shaken him more than he had admit, even to Rose, and he'd been pretty scared then. He knew that the more merciless of the people out there went for the families. He couldn't deal with anything happening to his. They were all he had. He had his mum and dad, sure. But it was different. He couldn't explain how, but it was. And he felt so frightened and alone when he realized that he couldn't always protect them. It was how he imagined Ron must have felt when he'd discovered what had happened to Rose.

Scorpius stood up and walked over to his girls, collapsing on top of them and tickling each of them just as his daughters had done to Rose.

When they were too tired and laughed-out to move, they just lay there on the grass, staring up at the darkening sky and the stars that were just waking up into the night.

Rose looked around her and felt more peaceful than she could have imagined. This was it. This was her life. She hadn't played professional Quidditch. She hadn't traveled the world. She hadn't lived on her own once in her life. Rose hadn't fulfilled any of the dreams she'd always held onto. And she wouldn't have it any other way, now.

* * *

"Goodnight, Kates," Scorpius whispered and kissed her forehead, smoothing her hair out of her face and kissing Mia and Cassie goodnight, too. He closed the door softly behind him and went into his and Rose's room where Rose was getting ready for bed after reading the girls a story.

"You realize they can't share a room forever, right?" Scorpius said as he pulled off his shirt and dumped it in the hamper by the door.

Rose shrugged and pulled on her nightdress. "When Mia goes to Hogwarts, then it will just be Cassie and Kate, and it'll continue on like that. They'll only share their room for five more years." She pulled back the comforters and slipped under them.

Scorpius stripped down to his boxers and followed her into the bed. "Five more years, Rose? That's a lot of years."

She pouted. "You're only saying that because you never had to share a room with anyone before Hogwarts."

Scorpius rasied an eyebrow. "And you did?" He brushed a curl away from her face and kissed her lightly, lingering a bit long than a normal quick goodnight-kiss.

"I shared all the time with Vic, Dom, Lily, Lucy, Molly, Roxanne, etc.," Rose argued.

"Doesn't count. You didn't live with them. We can't force them to share that room forever, Rose. They can't fit for much longer."

"We have more bedrooms, Scorp, let's just leave it for a bit, I'm too tired to deal with it."

Scorpius smirked. "You're too tired? How tired are you?" His right hand was slowly moving up the inside of her leg, brushing her nightdress up above her waist.

"Not th-at tired," Rose's breathing hitched and she gave in to Scorpius, kissing him hard and rolling to straddle him.

"Jesus," Scorpius moaned as Rose's hand slipped beneath his boxers.

* * *

"Malfoy!" Rose's head snapped around, expecting her coworker to be talking to her husband, but instead looking back guiltily at him when she realized he was talking to her.

Nathaniel Grizzly was just that: grizzly. He was an exceptional curse-breaker, but a bit terrifying. Rose could be just as terrifying as he when she wanted to be, but curse-breaking just wasn't the same for her anymore, and she didn't feel like putting all that energy towards fending off Nathaniel when whatever he was about to say was most likely true.

"Where 'as your mind been wanderin' for the last half hour? Anne Boleyn wuz discovered to have actually been a witch. O' course, if I'da been married ta Henry the Eighth, I would've wanted ta be a witch so I coulda done every awful thing I coulda thought o' ta him, too."

"Sorry," Rose shook her head, trying to clear the fog from her mind and focus on the report of the file. This was not what she'd ever wanted to do when she'd signed on to be a curse breaker. She hated the idea of working in an office. She had no idea how Scorpius did it half the time. Or her uncle Percy. Especially her uncle Percy. It was suffocating. She couldn't focus on anything.

Nathaniel looked at her quizzically. He'd seen the same look on tons of other people through many different careers. He was an old-timer. He'd been there when her uncle Bill had signed on. Both of them were filled with talent, a sense of adventure, and the inane need to prove themselves. Rose had had that obvious need to prove herself more than her uncle. He supposed it came from being a teenage mother. She felt like she needed to prove that she could do more and be more. And she was a firecracker, on top of it all. Nathaniel had been impressed with Rose, so much so that he'd offered to work with her exclusively and teach her everything he knew. Nathaniel had been there for almost forty years, so that was a hell of an amount of knowledge.

They'd worked together for about six years now, and he felt like Rose was his granddaughter or niece. And he knew when something was bugging her.

"What's on your mind, Rose?" he pushed the paperwork away and turned to look at her fully.

She sighed and slumped in her seat. "I don't know. I just can't focus. I keep thinking of the girls, but not just them. Stupid, random things, too. Like the shapes of clouds and whether Muggles have as good tasting sweets as we do and what was the name of that restaurant I went to when I was eight with my parents and brother in Boston and all these things that just don't connect to anything!"

Rose leaned her head on the table. Nathaniel rubbed circles on her back. "Rose," he said.

She looked up and rubbed her eyes. "Sorry, sorry. I'm sure I'll just snap out of it soon. Sorry." She regained her composure and smiled up at him. "So, where were we?"

"Rose, are you sure you still want to do this?" Nathaniel asked.

"Do this? As in, curse-breaking?" Rose's eyes were wide.

"Darlin', this wasn' your chosen profession, I know that. But you have such talen' for it. You're very good at it. But that doesn't necessarily mean you like it." Nathaniel paused, waiting for confirmation from Rose.

She nodded slowly. "It was my second choice," she admitted in a small voice. "I love doing it. But…" she paused.

"It's not Quidditch?" Nathaniel guessed.

Rose nodded. "A few weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Mia, I got this letter from the Harpies. I'd all just about signed a contract with them, and as soon as they found out, they sent me a letter saying that they didn't want me anymore. The scout went so far as to say that she didn't think when she'd suggested me that I'd turn out to be such a disappointment so soon."

Nathaniel hugged her gently and rubbed her back. "I'm sorry."

"I don't think Quidditch is really the issue, though. It's not like when I come here I wish I was going to Holyhead. I've always loved coming here. I love working here, working with you." Here she smiled up at Nathaniel who felt a little tingly in his chest at knowing how much he meant to her, too. "I just…I don't know." Rose shrugged.

"Why don't you think about it for a bit, darlin'?" suggested Nathaniel. "How about we go take a walk, stretch our legs a bit and get out of this hell hole, huh?"

Rose nodded and smiled gratefully. Nathaniel had always understood her hatred towards offices and walls and had the same hatred, as well.

Rose wasn't sure if she could deal with work anymore. It wasn't fun. And work had to have fun in it if she was going to do it. If something wasn't fun anymore, she didn't really want to do it.

But what else would she do? She couldn't just lounge around all day. It wasn't that she needed to work for money. Financially, they were set. Especially with Scorpius's job and his family's money, though they'd never ever consider using it. But she couldn't just laze around. It wasn't really like her, that much.

Would she really quit her job? Rose followed Nathaniel outside and took in a huge breath of fresh air. She grinned. That's what she wanted to do. Something outside.


	7. Chapter 6

Kate was down for her midday nap, and Cassie and Mia were at school (preschool, Rose reminded herself in Cassie's case).

Rose could finally relax. She collapsed on top of the couch. She didn't have enough energy to move into different position. One where she wasn't sprawled out all over the thing.

She sometimes forgot how exhausting it all was. She loved being a mother, wouldn't have it any other way. But sometimes, she just wanted some peace and quiet.

Rose often saw how Astoria disapproved of how she acted with the girls. Corrected: how she acted _like_ the girls. As if she was the same age as them. Astoria absolutely loved Rose, had since she was eleven. But she didn't approve of Rose acting like the girls were her equals, not like she was the superior because she was the mother. All in all, Astoria didn't approve of the Lorelai Gilmore parenting style, as Hermione called it.

And in truth, Rose wasn't always like that. But she did it more often in Astoria's presence just to annoy her. She still had the spunk she'd had when she was seventeen. To her, though, it seemed much more mundane.

But maybe mundane was what she needed, considering how she was laying on her couch with no energy whatsoever. Maybe she needed time to relax. She hated feeling so worn out all the time. And it felt like Scorpius wasn't helping. He was always at work, and she didn't feel like she could be at work when the girls were so young and he was obviously so immersed in the job.

Rose sighed, but didn't get up. She heard the front door open and close, heard the person – her husband – set down his keys, briefcase, jacket, kick off his shoes, and begin the journey towards the stairs.

"Hey," Rose said softly.

Scorpius stopped and turned to look at her. Rose sucked in a breath. He looked worse than she felt. His eyes looked almost sunken beneath the dark blue, almost black, bags under his eyes. His clothes were so rumpled it would've appeared he'd been sleeping in them at his desk. His hair was in disarray, more so than unusual, and his whole body just slumped.

But when he saw her, he smiled a bit, and trudged over to the couch, plopping himself down on it. Mostly on top of her. Her breath left her with a _whoosh_ but she didn't complain. She missed being so close to him.

"Hey," she said. "What're you doing here?"

Scorpius sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes. "Your dad caught me falling asleep at my desk. Ordered me to take the rest of the day off." So that explains the rumpled clothes then, Rose mused.

"Oh."

"Why are you lying here?"

She tried to shrug but found that it was kind of difficult while lying down. "I'm so tired." Rose paused, wondering how to bring up the delicate subject, but reverting back to her age old tactic. "I think I need to quit my job." The tactic: blurting it out and dropping it on people like a two ton anvil that Wile E. Coyote would attempt to use on the Roadrunner.

Scorpius's eyes flew open. "What?"

"I'm so tired, all the time. I feel like I'm not putting in a good effort because I'm not focused on anything, least of all work. It seems like I'm only doing everything halfway, and I can't do that anymore. Maybe I won't quit maybe I'll just take a sabbatical or something. But I need a break, Scorp. I need one so badly."

The sound of Rose almost pleading hit Scorpius hard. He had had no idea she was this worn out. He supposed his being at the office until unimaginable hours wasn't helping one bit. And it wasn't really fair to Mia, Cassie, or Kate, either. But he didn't want her to have to quit her job. How else was she going to escape from this?

No matter how good she was with the girls, this had never been her dream. Scorpius knew that. He knew that though she'd always really wanted kids, she hadn't wanted them so soon. She'd wanted to play professional Quidditch as a Chaser for the Harpies. She'd wanted to travel the entire world, maybe write a travel guide for wizards going to Muggle places to help her earn enough money to get by while doing that. Rose had wanted to dance in clubs until three in the morning, just for the fun of dancing. She hadn't wanted the 9 to 5 job ever, let alone so soon. Now she had the three kids, husband, house, slightly easy and mundane job, etc. And he felt incredibly guilty.

So he nodded. "Alright. Are you sure, though? What if you need a break from all of this?"

Rose closed her eyes again and settled back into the couch. "I'll call Lily and make her take over for me for the day. Or maybe I'll make my mum take over and I'll take Lily with me."

Scorpius felt a little uneasy. What had brought all this on? "Are you positive you want to do this, Rose?"

Rose's eyes flew open. "What is with you?" she snapped. "I just want a little break. I work part-time anyways, and if you feel like trading places, be my guest. It just so happens that I need to be home for our _daughters_."

Rose's voice had woken up Kate. The baby monitor on the coffee table was exhaling her voice in cries and whimpers. Rose sighed and sank into the couch, closing her eyes and wishing that things were different for a little bit. That she didn't get into bitter little spats with Scorpius so much, when there wasn't really anything to be angry about.

She grabbed the monitor and bounced up the stairs to Kate when she didn't cease crying and fall back asleep.

No matter how much Rose loved her kids, sometimes she couldn't help but wish that she hadn't gotten pregnant so young. That one little thought sparked so much guilt in her she felt like she had been transported to Azkaban in her parents' time. But the guilt didn't stop her from wondering what her life might have been like.

Scorpius sighed. He'd lied. He hadn't come home early because he'd fallen asleep at his desk. He'd come home early because their team had found a lead. He was leaving at five o'clock in the morning the next day.

They always let the Aurors go home early the day before, to spend time with their family. No one said it, but it was in case they didn't come back.

Scorpius didn't want this to be how he left. Especially if he did end up dying or something.

He rubbed a hand over his face then got up off the couch.

Rose was holding Kate in the rocking chair by the window overlooking the backyard, trying to coax her into sleeping, when Scorpius arrived upstairs.

"Rosie, we need to talk," he said. Scorpius dropped onto the ground and leaned his back up against the bunk beds.

Rose looked up at him, startled. He only called her Rosie when he was incredibly happy, or absolutely serious. "Right now?" she whispered, her eyes darting between him and the almost-asleep Kate.

"Right after she falls asleep."

Rose nodded and resumed the gentle rocking motion. It had always helped Kate fall asleep; even when Rose was pregnant with her. One of Scorpius's friends through the Magical Law Enforcement Department had invited them onto his boat and Rose hadn't felt a kick or any queasiness the entire time; a first for that pregnancy.

Scorpius left the room and walked into their bedroom. He dumped an old knapsack onto the bed and began to stuff a few t-shirts, some pants, and the necessities in it.

Rose appeared in the doorway as he placed a toothbrush and extra thing of toothpaste on top.

"When?" was all she asked. But she hadn't moved, so Scorpius knew she was upset.

"Tomorrow morning. 5 a.m."

She nodded. "Can you tell me where you're going?"

"No," Scorpius said, not daring to make eye contact with her. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I barely even know what's going on right now. Your dad and uncle are briefing the rest of us when we get there."

Rose sat down on the bed and frowned. "Isn't it a bit unusual for the Head of the department and his second-in-command to go on a routine stakeout or mission?"

Scorpius swallowed but continued to shovel his pack around to fit everything easily. "A bit. But this isn't really routine."

"And shouldn't you not be allowed to work on this case since it affects you personally?"

"Yes," he grit his teeth. "But I was already on the case at the time it was discovered to be connected to me, and I specifically asked to stay on the case."

"What about the girls?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I shouldn't be gone for long," he squirmed, uneasy. He didn't want to leave them any more than he wanted to leave Rose, but he had to. It was part of his job, and she'd known that when he'd signed on.

Rose nodded, obviously upset.

"What?" Scorpius sighed, exasperated. "What comment could you possibly have? It's not like I can just not go! You know I can't tell you anything; it's procedure, protocol, routine, whatever the hell they want to call it. What could you possibly have to say?"

Rose glared up at him. Her eyes showed the faintest hint of moisture, but Scorpius didn't notice. "Maybe I was going to say that I'd miss you and so would the girls, but I don't really feel much like saying that anymore," she spat coolly. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and finish cleaning up _your_ bloody mess in the kitchen."

She stood up and stomped off, the sounds of her feet on the stairwell echoing through the house and waking Kate.

Scorpius hung his head. Could he ever do anything right?

He'd thought they'd gotten over whatever their last argument was about. But now that he thought about it, they'd never actually apologized. Then again, when did they, really? Not that often, that's for sure. Maybe they should start to.

Scorpius sighed. If this is what happened after people had been married for a few years, how did people stay together?

Scorpius's eyes went wide when he realized what he'd just thought. He shook his head and told himself that that wouldn't happen.

But everything seemed to be changing, lately. How could he be so sure of anything? Even his marriage?

* * *

**Thank you guys all so much for reading and following this story! Please review!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7, here we come! Thank you all so much for reading and review-ing and everything else! I hope you like this chapter! If you guys have any ideas for in the future, please let me know! I already have a bunch more chapters written and I'll try to update regularly. If you have any ideas for later, just stick it in your review or PM me or something!**

**Thanks again!**

Rose and Scorpius were just about silent at dinner, only speaking to the girls. The clinking and scratching of forks and knives hitting plates was painfully loud to Scorpius, second only to Mia's incessant chatter about what she and Alex did at school.

"Mum, can we watch The Little Mermaid after dinner?" Cassie asked. It was her favorite movie.

"No," Scorpius said, barely listening.

"Why not?" Mia pouted. The Little Mermaid was one of the few movies that both she and Cassie liked. Otherwise it was one or the other. Cassie liked the princess movies and Mia liked the ones where things blew up. They'd worried about that, like all young and first-time parents, until Ron had reminded them that Rose had liked those movies, as well, at Mia's age.

"Yes, Scorpius, why not?" Rose asked, not bothering to take the scathing tone out of her voice.

Scorpius sighed. "Never mind, let's watch it."

Rose quirked an eyebrow. No matter what they were fighting about or when they were fighting, he never took it out on the girls. Right now, she wanted to slap him for it.

She turned away from him and wiped Kate's face off with a damp cloth, residue from the tomato sauce sticking to the cloth as it came off her face. Kate was always a messy eater when they had spaghetti. Truth be told, she was just always a messy eater, in general.

Rose took her out of the high chair and set her down on the ground. Cassie and Mia put their plates up next to the sink, still too short to put them in the sink, and then hopped onto the couch, Kate toddling after them and clutching fiercely at her dragon.

"What is with you?" Rose hissed at Scorpius as he returned from putting the movie on for the girls.

Scorpius reached for the dishes and started to wash them. "Rose, I just…" he sighed and leaned against the counter, facing down. He felt like he was going to collapse.

He had to leave tomorrow. It was real this time. The fact that he might not come back. It was always looming in the distance when he left for a mission, but it was really hitting him this time. He didn't want to leave; he had so much _to_ leave. It was more real than when he was on a mission and Rose gave birth to Cassie while he was away. Though the fight they were sort of having now wasn't nearly as bad as the one then. Rose hadn't spoken to him for weeks that time. And it had felt rocky for months.

"Scorp?" Rose asked, coming up behind him and putting her hands on his back and rubbing, like she did with the kids to call them down. "Are you okay?"

Scorpius turned around and grabbed Rose in a tight hug, burying his face in her hair. "If I don't come back…" he started, but couldn't say anything more.

Rose shook her head back and forth against his chest. "You're going to come back," she said firmly, her voice muffled from his shirt. She leaned back a little to look up at him. "Why are you so worried this time? What makes it any different?"

"Hello? Is anyone here?" a voice called from the entryway.

"Grumpy!" Mia shrieked and jumped off the couch, launching herself into Draco's arms. Cassie followed and gave him a slobbery kiss on the cheek, at which Draco winced. Kate reached up at her grandpa, begging to be picked up.

"Hello my favorite granddaughters," he said, smiling. He bent down and swung Kate up into his arms. "How are you?"

"We're watching The Little Mermaid!" Cassie announced proudly.

"Good movie," Draco nodded appreciatively.

"Do you want to watch it with us, Grumpy?" Mia asked.

"I sure do. Just let me talk to your parents for a second, alright?" Draco set Kate back down on the ground gently and the girls went back to the couch and resumed their movie watching. Mia shoved Cassie over to "make room for Grumpy".

Though Draco detested the name Grumpy, he loved the girls. He was beaming as he walked over to Scorpius and Rose, but his smile faded completely as he reached them. "Scorpius," he said in a low tone, "we need to talk."

"What about?" asked Scorpius

Draco shook his head. "No, not here. In your office?"

Scorpius nodded confusedly. "Sure."

* * *

Draco watched his son anxiously as he read his grandfather's will. He knew when Scorpius got to the point about Ophiuchus because his eyes grew to the size of eight Muggle golf courses.

Scorpius set the will down after about ten minutes of reading and rereading it. "I have an uncle?" he asked hoarsely.

Draco nodded. "Lucius had an affair." Draco hadn't been able to call him anything other than 'Lucius' since he'd found out. He couldn't say 'Father', not yet. Maybe not ever again.

"Does Grandmother know?"

Draco shook his head. "I didn't think it wise to inform her at this point in time."

"Dad," Scorpius began, but shook his head instead. He tried again, "This changes the entire case around. It adds another suspect. This – this _Ophiuchus_ could have killed Grandfather for his wealth."

"Then it stands to reason that he'll kill us, as well, if he wants our wealth," Draco pointed out. "Which he hasn't."

"Yet," Scorpius spat, angry at the man he had never met who shared his blood, only his genetics. Never, ever in name or wealth or fortune. He was going to make sure of it.

"Scorpius?" Draco asked, hesitating at the near feral gleam in his son's eye.

"Can you stay here tonight with the girls?" Scorpius asked. "Please?"

Draco nodded. "Your mother can come, as well."

Scoripus gave a terse nod and pushed back from his desk and practically leaped up the stairs to Rose.

He found her nestled on the couch between Cassie and Mia who were both gradually falling asleep.

She caught his eye and gave a questioning look. Rose gently shifted Mia off her lap and onto the couch as she got up and went over to him.

"What's going on?"

"I have to go to the Ministry for a few hours," Scorpius answered quickly. "Ask my dad what's going on. I don't have time to tell you right now."

He kissed her hard and fleetingly before running out the door and Disapparating.

Rose stared after him blearily. _Huh? That was odd_, she thought, before turning back to the couch. She was too tired to try to understand right now. And was still too angry at him to want to understand.

* * *

Rose settled down in the rocking chair, singing softly to the girls to help them fall asleep. Draco stood in the doorway, watching the not-so familiar domestic scene before him. Had his parents ever once did this for him? Ever _thought_ to do this for him? No. He wished he had done this for Scorpius. Or that he and Astoria had been able to have more children.

Rose smiled lightly as she noticed the girls' eyes drooping. She got up and gently kissed the girls before flipping on the nightlight and closing the door.

"So, Scorpius said that you'd tell me why he careened out of the house like he was in the middle of a car chase in Ronin," Rose said, smirking slightly as she led Draco back downstairs to the couch.

Draco nodded. "You remember my father's death?"

Rose grimaced. "Yeah," she almost whispered.

"His will," Draco gestured and handed it to her, motioning for her to read it.

Rose scanned through the words. She felt like her mind was boggled. The will was positively medieval, to paraphrase Rachel Devereux of Trouble With Angels. It was like it had been written in the seventh century at the same time a tithe was being paid and the lord of the manor was crushing down a serf rebellion.

"It's medieval," she whispered her thoughts out loud, stunned. Rose looked up. "Ophiuchus?" she asked.

Draco nodded. "Half-brother. He had an affair."

"But…but…if Scorpius doesn't have a male heir, according to this will, he gets everything. Even…even…"

"Yes," Draco said. "Even the girls, you, Astoria, Narcissa. It is medieval, as you said. I can change it in my will for when I die, but if I do then there will be countless publicity about it. If I change it, it invites this man out into the open. Court cases, lawyers, everything."

"This changes the case around completely, though, doesn't it?" Rose asked.

Draco nodded. "With Lucius's death, he is one more dead man closer to the fortune."

"There's only two left in his way," Rose whispered, barely looking at him.

Draco nodded again, he felt like it was all he could do, but knew that she wasn't paying attention.

"Are…are you okay?" he asked.

Rose looked up at him. "You hand me a will that states that my husband's life is in danger and you ask if I'm okay?" she snapped. Rose stopped and her hand went to her mouth. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to snap at you! I'm sorry."

Draco pat her arm awkwardly. "It's okay," he murmured, knowing that his temper would've flared much, much worse if he'd been confronted with information endangering Astoria. But he wondered if Rose realized, at that moment, that Scorpius was his son. And his life was in danger, as well.

"Have you told Astoria?" Rose asked.

"No."

"She's your wife," Rose said, a bit harsh for normal but Draco was pretty sure that it wasn't directed at him, but at his son. "She deserves to know."

Draco tapped his leg. He _did_ need to tell Astoria. But it was still a nerve wracking idea.

"You don't have to stick around here if you don't want to," Rose said. "It's alright if you have to go, really." She smiled a bit. "You don't have to baby-sit me," she laughed a bit.

Draco smiled. "All right, kiddo, I'll see you in a little bit." He liked how even when she was freaking out, she could summon courage out of nothing.

Rose hugged her father-in-law and he returned it before leaving the house.

* * *

She sighed and fell back into the couch, waiting for her husband to come home.

* * *

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	9. Chapter 8

Scorpius spent ten minutes searching the Ministry furiously before remembering that Harry and Ron would have gone home to spend some time with their wives before the mission.

He Apparated to Harry's house and banged desperately on the front door.

Harry opened the door with a wild look in his eye, Ginny hovering in the background wearing what appeared to be only her dressing gown.

"Oh," Scorpius turned bright red. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," he kept his eyes down, "but you really need to hear this."

Harry nodded and opened the door to allow Scorpius in, both of them awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

Scorpius slapped the will down on Harry's desk once they reached his office.

Harry raised his eyebrows and Scorpius gestured for him to read it.

Scorpius watched as his boss's eyes scanned the parchment. His eyebrows shot up once again, but in surprise this time.

He put the papers down and looked squarely at Scorpius. "When did you find this out?"

"Fifteen minutes ago?" Scorpius guessed. "My father came over and showed it to me just before that. I rushed to the Ministry, being stupid, then here." He paused. "It changes the entire case around."

"No," Harry shook his head. "Not really. It just illuminates a possibility that this Ophiuchus is part of the group we were heading to check out tomorrow morning. Do you know what he looks like?"

Scorpius shook his head as he slumped into the chair in front of his desk. "No, I don't."

"We'll have to find probable cause to arrest every one of them, then, and do a DNA test."

"A DNA test?" asked Scorpius, obviously confused.

"It's a muggle test to determine someone's parentage by looking at their genes," Harry responded. He took a deep breath. "This presents us with an actual suspect, not just a group of suspects."

"We're still going," Scorpius said, almost sighed. He'd hoped that he would be able to stay.

"We're still going," Harry confirmed with a small, knowing smile. "We have more reason to go, now. Ophiuchus has a motive for killing Lucius, though not necessarily a motive for the other murders, and he'll be coming after you and your father next if his motive is for the fortune."

Scorpius nodded. "Do you need me, or can I go back to Rose?"

Harry smiled. "Go back to Rose," he shooed him out of the office.

"By the way," Scorpius called as he left, grinning, "sorry for interrupting!"

* * *

Rose wanted to go outside and fly, something that always made her feel better, but she didn't feel right leaving the kids asleep inside by themselves.

She sighed and stretched out on the couch, changing the channel on the TV.

She checked the clock.

She changed the channel again.

Rose got up and stretched.

She sat back down.

Her foot tapped idly.

She shot up and started pacing.

When the hell would he get back? And when did she become this impatient? Rose snorted. Who was she kidding? She'd always been incredibly impatient.

There was the sound of fiddling keys at the door and Rose practically flew over there, wrenching the door open to reveal Scorpius about to put his key into the doorknob.

Rose flung her arms around him and pulled him inside. "Oh, thank God. I was going to kill someone soon if you didn't get home."

He chuckled and shut the door with his leg as his arms were still wrapped around Rose. "Aw, look, you're happy I'm home."

Rose stuck her tongue out at him. "Hi."

"Hola."

"Bonjour."

"Ciao."

"Konichiwa."

"…I can't think of another one," Scorpius said. He bent down and teased her lips with his. She didn't respond immediately, but she didn't back away either. He wondered if she'd forgiven him for whatever he did. He wasn't really clear on what that was and he doubted that she knew, either.

Rose broke away and sighed. "That's alright; I don't think I can think of another, either, right now."

"Wait a few minutes and you won't be able to think at all," Scorpius bragged.

"Want to bet?" Rose smirked.

"You're on."

Rose's hands grabbed the band of Scorpius's jeans and pulled him flush up against her. Was she forgiving him? Or was she just doing this to get the last feel in before he left? At that moment, he didn't really care.

His hands wandered underneath her shirt and his lips delved onto hers.

Scorpius really hoped that none of the girls woke up this time.

* * *

"What time do you have to be at the Ministry?" Rose asked Scorpius. She curled up against him and pulled the comforter up over her.

"A bit before five," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"Time for a repeat?" Rose joked.

"Ugh," he moaned. "I'm too exhausted."

"I wore you out, huh?" she smirked.

"I feel like we've had this conversation before," Scorpius muttered as he leaned over to kiss her.

"Many times," Rose teased. "And you were always the tired one."

"Ah, shut it," Scorpius said, his lips taunting a moan from her once more.

* * *

"You said good-bye to the girls?" Rose asked, stirring her hot chocolate.

"Yeah," Scorpius answered. He dumped his bag at the door. "They were exhausted and didn't really want to get up, though. So I'm not really sure if they'll remember when they wake up again later."

Rose nodded and stared fixatedly at the mug in her hand. If she looked up at him, she might start to cry. She could remember a time when she'd barely ever cried. Ever since she'd gotten pregnant with Mia, it was like the waterworks couldn't stop.

"Rose?" Scorpius asked, coming over to stand next to her. He tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. He was a bit startled to see tears gathering in her eyes. He'd never get used to it.

Rose set the drink down. She worried her lip with her teeth.

"I'll be back soon," Scorpius said.

Rose nodded.

He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face in his chest, clinging tightly. "No heroics, alright?" her voice was muffled from his t-shirt, but Scorpius still heard the shakiness.

"I promise," he said. "No heroics."

He stepped away and made sure to look at Rose, to imprint her into his memory.

Her arms were wrapped around herself, like she was holding herself together. There was a glistening of tears in her eyes, but her chin was forced up slightly and her shoulders squared. Her hair was haphazardly pulled into a braid on one side of her neck and it hung down the front of her shirt.

Scorpius stepped forward and brushed the stray hairs away from her collarbone. He heard Rose's intake of breath.

Suddenly he couldn't control himself. He slammed his lips onto hers, picked her up and practically dumped her on the countertop.

He took her, right then and there.

Last night, Rose had felt like he was memorizing her. Like he had to savor every inch of her to remember her by until he saw her again. This, though, was just pure agony and heartbreak. They were scared, and they knew it, but like always, they'd pretend they weren't.

Rose hugged him tightly. "If you don't go now you'll be late," she whispered.

Scorpius nodded. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said as he stepped back and away from her.

He walked out the front door and exited the gate.

He knew that looking over his shoulder might be disastrous. But if he didn't, he wouldn't have a last glimpse.

So he turned. Rose was standing in the doorway, holding herself, staring intently at him.

Scorpius lifted his hand up in a sort of wave, and Disapparated.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 9

Rose placed Kate in the high chair and snapped the bib around her neck. She may be two, but she was the messiest eater in the world, even worse than Rose's dad, and Rose didn't feel like cleaning up the entire kitchen.

Mia and Cassie had finished their lunch and were on the living room floor, watching their stuffed animals battle each other. It was a charm Rose had learned how to do when she was pregnant with Cassie because she couldn't play with Mia as much and Scorpius was away on his mission. So she set stuffed animals on her.

Rose sighed and placed Kate's plate of food in front of her, checking again to make sure that Kate's hair was securely behind the headband so it couldn't get in the way of her food.

The fireplace lit up and Lily stepped out, right into the battlefield.

"Aunt Lily, Alice is going to eat you!" Cassie shrieked as the little bunny jumped and latched onto Lily's leg.

Lily waved her wand and the bunny began to attack Cassie. Her giggles mounted as Lily walked into the kitchen to Rose. "Hey, how're you doing?" she asked, taking the empty seat next to her cousin.

Rose shrugged. "Alright, I guess. Just felt like checking up on me or were you sent to?"

Lily smiled and tossed her hair behind her shoulder. "Now, would I ever do something like that to you?"

Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Vic sent me," Lily admitted. "But then I decided, on my own thank you very much, that you'd like me to stay with you here until Scorpius gets back. Our mums might be joining the party as well, if that's alright, considering their husbands are gone, too."

Rose grinned. "Sounds absolutely alright with me." Internally, she sighed in relief. The house was already feeling empty, even though it was nowhere near large, with just her and the girls in it. "I'd love it if you stayed."

"I knew you would," Lily gloated and laughed. "I'll go get my bags after the girls fall asleep, how's that?"

"Sounds good," Rose nodded. "Oh, no," she said in dismay as she looked over at her youngest daughter, asleep in the high chair and covered in food.

Lily giggled. She glanced over at the other two girls, who were now throwing their animals at each other with violent sounds. "Is it always this hectic around here?"

Rose scoffed. "Oh, please, this is so relaxed. Nowhere near hectic. Hectic is when I'm trying to take a shower and I hear Mia screaming and I bolt out of the bathroom, barely a towel on, and find a fire on top of the stove with Scorpius attempting to stop it with the pan while Cassie has somehow become covered in syrup and Kate is throwing clumped handfuls of yogurt at everyone."

Lily laughed. "When did this happen?"

Rose thought for a second. "Four days ago."

"Oh, Jeez," Lily marveled. "If my flat was ever that noisy I might die."

Rose laughed as she wiped the food off Kate's face. "That's what happens when you live alone."

Lily sighed and wiped her eyes dramatically. "It's what happens when the person you had planned on living with gets pregnant, has a baby, and moves in with her husband-to-be."

Rose stuck her tongue out at her would've-been roommate.

"So, guess who I saw the other day?" Lily leaned over towards Rose and lowered her voice.

Rose bit back a chuckle. The Weasley-Potter Family, what a gossip mill. "Who?"

"Louis."

"So?" Rose asked. It wasn't uncommon for one of them to stumble across another. There were too many of them to not do so.

"You'll never guess who he was with."

"Santa?"

"No."

"Kurt Russell?"

"Come on, at least make your guesses possible answers."

Rose sighed. "Anyone we're related to?"

Lily shook her head.

"Anyone we're friends with? We know?"

"We know them, but we were never really friends with them."

"Did they go to Hogwarts?"

"Yup," Lily smirked. "You'll never guess."

"Then why are you making me try?"

"It was Eric Hensworth."

"So? Weren't they friends?"

"Honey, what I saw, you wouldn't do with a friend," Lily smirked.

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked, pulling a piece of carrot out of Kate's hair and wiping her face off as she still slept soundly.

"They were snogging!"

Rose's jaw dropped. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that our cousin, Louis Weasley, is not straight."

"Why hasn't he said anything?" Rose blurted.

Lily sighed dramatically. "I don't know. Aren't we trustworthy? Aren't we supportive?"

Rose picked Kate up out of the high chair and pointed her wand absentmindedly at the TV and it flickered on, turning the older girls' attention towards it and away from the stove.

She started walking up the stairs and Lily followed her. "Maybe he was planning on telling us soon."

Lily snorted as Rose deposited Kate in the crib and pulled the shades down to dim the sun streaming in and make her more comfortable.

Rose shut the door and started to whisper with Lily out in the hallway. "Are you going to say anything about it to him?"

Lily pondered it for a bit. "Probably not. If he hasn't told us then he doesn't want us to know."

Rose nodded. "Maybe he'll say something soon anyways."

"That's not all," Lily smirked.

"What now?" Rose sighed.

"Callie's pregnant!"

"What?" Rose cried, ecstatic.

Lily nodded happily and the two of them jumped up and down.

"I came by on the weekend to visit them and I saw the test in the trash can in the bathroom," Lily grinned. "She told me to shut up," Lily laughed, "said she was telling James later."

Lily grinned again. "I'm gonna be an aunt!"

Rose laughed. "God, James, married. That was practically unbelievable. But James as a father? Yikes!"

"Two professional Quidditch players married and parents. That should not be allowed," Lily said. "And, the dad has Auror training, too. Poor, kid." Lily paused and smiled. "Callie will be a great mum, though. She'll be like you with your kids. Their mum and best friend."

Rose felt a little warmth run through her. "You really think I'm that good of a mum?"

Lily nodded. "Of course I do. Whenever I come over here I always wish that when, if, I have kids I'm as good with them as you are with yours."

"Aw, Lils," Rose said, feeling like she was tearing up a bit.

"Are you crying?" Lily asked, stunned.

"It's been a teary kind of day. And that just means so much, you know," Rose fanned her face, desperate for the tears to go away. "I've always wondered if I was actually a good mum, what with the whole getting-pregnant-at-seventeen thing."

Lily hugged Rose gently. "Of course you're a great mum. Oh, by the way, Nana told everyone to come over for dinner today. She wanted everyone to be together while 'so many of our lovely husbands and sons are off gallivanting across the world capturing those terrible people'," Lily swooned in Molly's voice.

Rose giggled. "Come on, I'm going to make the girls take a nap now so they'll be awake later. They sleep so dead to the world that we could run around the house shooting whipped cream and canned cheese at each other and they wouldn't notice."

Lily giggled. "I wonder if James will have the struck dumb look on his face that everyone else in this family had when they discovered they were going to be parents. It was such a dead giveaway when they didn't say anything."

Rose sent the girls upstairs to their beds to sleep and turned the TV off.

"Remember Teddy's face?" Rose said as they walked down to the kitchen. "He looked like he'd been hit by a bludger then petrificus totalis-ed. It was hilarious."

Lily nodded and sat down at the kitchen table, rubbing her hand across the rough and worn surface as Rose set a cup of tea down in front of her and sat across from her with her own mug.

"Ready for tonight?" Lily asked, sipping some of her tea.

Rose sighed and slumped in her seat. "When will anyone ever be ready to go to the Burrow? Especially when it's Nana's way of checking up on all of those whose husbands are off chasing bad guys."

"You'll survive," Lily smiled. "You always do."


	11. Chapter 10

"Rose, dear, do you want more soup?" Molly hovered over her granddaughter, as she started ladling more soup into Rose's almost-full bowl.

Rose exchanged a look with Lily and bit back a smile as she accepted the onion soup and took a few sips.

"Where is everyone?" Hermione asked, setting down a bowl of salad onto the table.

Molly shrugged and ladled more soup into Lily's bowl and then Ginny's. "Most of them said that they couldn't come." She sighed. "I was so looking forward to it."

"Where's Granddad?" Lily asked.

"Off in his shed, fiddling with some Muggle object," Molly huffed and settled down into the seat at the head of the table, in front of the four girls.

"Now then, why don't you girls move in here while Harry, Ron, and Scorpius are off saving the world?" Molly asked, placing a roll on Ginny's plate.

"Actually, Nana, we're all at my house," Rose said. "I don't want the girls to have their life uprooted or anything." The girls were currently all upstairs in Ginny's old room, hopefully not doing anything that would get them into trouble.

"Oh," Molly said. She paused before adding, "But wouldn't you all feel so much safer here?"

Ginny bit her lip, trying not to smile. "Mum, it's alright; we're all together at Rose's house. Rose doesn't want to move the girls anyplace else."

Molly sighed and stirred her soup wistfully. "I would feel so much better if you were all here."

"Really, Nana, it's alright. They shouldn't be gone too long, anyways, right?" Rose looked for confirmation (help/support/a life raft) at Ginny and her mum.

They both nodded furiously.

"Molly, don't worry, they'll be home soon and we'll all be fine while they're gone," Hermione said.

"I just worry about you girls," Molly sighed. "Especially you, Rose," she smiled at her granddaughter. "You're so young and you have such young children. If something happens to Scorpius I just want you to be someplace where you'll have someone watching over you."

Rose swallowed and looked down at the table. "I'm going to go check on the girls," she said and bolted without any further comments.

But instead of going to check on her daughters she sat on the stairs, still close enough to hear the conversation at the table.

Usually Molly wasn't this tactless. Rose wondered if it stemmed from her being so worried about all of her sons. She'd always considered Harry as her seventh son and now she seemed to consider Scorpius one, as well.

"Mum," Ginny groaned. "Why would you say that? After all these years, you should know how much we worry when they're away. Saying something like that just makes all the worries come up to the surface, especially when we've repressed them already."

Molly sighed. "I'm just so worried for her. I mean, the girls are so young and what if she has to raise them all by herself? It's not like we're not all thinking it."

"But Rose doesn't want to think about it," Lily said.

"Molly," Hermione said, "she doesn't ever want to appear weak. And to her, worrying about this is weak when she knows that her worrying will do nothing to help."

Rose bit her lip. It was true. All of it. And it was just scaring her further.

What if he _didn't _come back? What if Scorpius died? What if he was really, really hurt? What if he was gone a really long time? Kidnapped? Tortured? So many things could go wrong.

Rose squeezed her eyes shut. She would not think about this. He was going to be fine. He'd promised her no heroics. He'd be alright. He promised. He'd always come home alright before, this time wasn't going to be any different.

* * *

So far, everything was just going along normally, Rose thought as she waved her wand at a locket and purple sparks emitted from it.

Beside her, Nathaniel was doing the same thing.

The locket was an ancient heirloom of the Zabini family. The Malfoys' family friends. Their son, Mark, had always been good friends with Scorpius. And since their families were such good friends, she was by extension, and now she was breaking curses on their locket. Mark's mother loved that locket and she couldn't bear to part with it, no matter how dangerous it was.

Rose and Nathaniel waved their wands a bit more and with a puff of smoke the locket opened.

"Bit dramatic, huh?" Nathaniel looked at Rose and grinned.

She nodded and smiled. They both walked a little closer to the locket and Nathaniel used his wand to open it further.

Rose felt her breath catch in her throat. The inside was just as exquisite as the outside. It looked like someone had spent years delicately engraving all of these designs. Inside of it there was a crumbling picture. Rose supposed it had been black and white but the colors had faded and gone a bit more Sepia-ish with age.

The photo had been taken in what looked like the early 1900s. A man with dark hair and skin had an arm around the waist of a woman with a big smile that seemed to light up her face.

"She looks so happy," Rose whispered.

Nathaniel smiled at the look on Rose's face. "She does. Do you know who tha' is?"

Rose shook her head, but the man did look familiar. Quite a bit like Mark, actually. "Is that one of the Zabini ancestors?"

Nathaniel nodded.

"They look so happy," Rose murmured.

Nathaniel looked at her oddly. "Feeling a little homesick?"

Rose's head jerked and she looked at him. She smiled ruefully. "I'm that obvious?"

Nathaniel smiled. "There's a picture of me and my wife on our honeymoon tha' I never fail to smile at when I look at it. Martha gets tha' look on her face whenever she glances at it, too."

Rose grinned. "There's a picture of the five of us at the Burrow. All of them tackled me and we're staring up at the camera with big grins. Mia was missing her two front teeth."

"Sounds like a nice picture," Nathaniel said.

"It is," Rose nodded.

"Thought any more abou' wha' we discussed last time?"

Rose nodded. "A little bit, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do, though. Probably take a sabbatical for a little while and see how that goes." She shrugged and started writing down what counter-curses, spells, and charms she'd used to break the curses on the lock.

"Martha wanted me ta invite you an' the girls over for dinner sometime this week," Nathaniel said.

"Just Martha?" Rose smirked. "You don't enjoy our company as well? I'm so hurt," Rose flung a hand over her forehead.

"Aw, Squirt, you know I like all of ya's too."

Rose chuckled. "What day?"

"Thursday sound good?"

"Per-fect-o," Rose chirped and they returned back to work.

* * *

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	12. Chapter 11

Scorpius crouched in the bushes staring at the little house.

It had been over a month since he'd left and he was currently hiding behind little tiny bushes at the very tip of Scotland. Not true, he corrected himself. He was _past_ the tip of Scotland. He was in Kirkwall.

It was becoming increasingly boring. They'd spotted nothing…recently. At first they'd been able to listen in on several meetings and gather information. They had all the proof they needed now to arrest them. They knew almost everyone's name. The problem was that there were barely any sightings of people in this area at all.

Harry and Ron had informed all of them (Scorpius, Erin, Greg, Louise, and Matt) that they had a lead on a group of anti-muggleborn activists up in Scotland. They'd showed a picture of the leader. And he looked so much like Scorpius's father, Draco Malfoy, that Scorpius knew it was Ophiuchus. It might not have been proof, exactly, but it was a hunch and like Velma, his hunches were usually correct.

They'd heard whispered conversations with their scores of Extendable Ears; that was where they'd discovered the plans and the names of the activists. They called the leader the Serpent. The serpent was the sign of the Malfoy family. Harry had sneered upon hearing this; mumbling something about 'the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black'. Or was it the 'Most Noble and Ancient House of Black'? Scorpius couldn't remember. He didn't need to because it wasn't really related to the case and Scorpius couldn't remember the Black family having a symbol, just a crest and an insane amount of pureblood mania except for Sirius, though it wasn't like he'd ever met the man.

But when Scorpius had piped up with information Rose had shared with him once, right in the middle of the serpent discussion, they'd all just stared at him, dumbfounded. Apparently they didn't appreciate information on the ancient Druids and Celts of Ireland. They had believed that the serpent was the sign of wisdom. Then, Scorpius had continued, foolhardily, with more information from Rose that was a bit anti-Christianity. He'd said, "And St. Patrick was stupid enough to drive all the serpents from Ireland when the Druids practically worshipped them!" He'd gone on, and he'd regretted it when he'd realized that Louise was gripping the little crucifix on a necklace around her neck so hard that her knuckles were turning white.

Erin and Ron had both been trying to stifle laughs, though.

"So, I see you've been listening to my daughter," Ron had chuckled while ducking from the looks Greg and Louise were aiming at the three of them.

Someone tapped Scorpius on the shoulder and he whirled around to see Greg in time to relieve him take over the watch.

Scorpius and Greg exchanged a few words and then Scorpius Apparated back to the run-down flat they were renting for the Aurors to stay in.

"Anything?" Ron asked as Scorpius slumped into a seat at the table in the kitchen. Harry dumped some food in front of him and Scorpius bit into it hungrily after shaking his head 'no'.

Ron sighed. "We know they're in there. We know what they're doing. Why can't they just come out?"

Scorpius knew how he felt. They were all frustrated. They were all wondering how much longer they were going to be there. It had only been a little over a month, almost two, Scorpius thought bitterly, but it felt more like three or four.

"The girls are going to be going mental soon," Ron said.

Scorpius scoffed. "Going mental is when you miss your daughter being born," he said, remembering with regret the mission that had cause him to miss Cassie's birth. He hadn't known or been able to come back until a month after she was born.

Harry grimaced. "They're used to it by now."

Just because the girls were used to it, didn't mean it helped any of them. Each night Harry slept holding a picture of his family. Scorpius didn't go anywhere without the picture of Rose and the girls in his jacket pocket. Ron kept reading and rereading the same book whenever he wasn't watching the house and when asked about it he grunted and hid it behind him or underneath a pillow or something.

Scorpius twisted his wedding ring around his finger. Harry smirked at him knowingly and gestured at how his own hands were doing the same thing.

"They'll mess up, don't worry," Ron said, "they have to. They always do."

Harry grimaced and joined them at the table. "We just need a glimpse of them."

All of a sudden, an owl patronus flew through the window and practically crashed to a halt . "Help! At the house," Greg's voice sounded. It was urgent, deadly, and pernicious.

The three of them bolted from the table and Apparated immediately to the house, the other three aurors right behind them.

Streaks of light flashed as they were thrown at them; they'd Apparated into what seemed to be the midst of an attack. Erin, Louise, and Matt appeared next to them.

Scorpius saw a head of white blond hair that looked so much like his father's and grandfather's. And his.

Scorpius launched towards the man and sent a stunning spell at his chest. But the man saw him and his face stunned Scorpius into stillness.

The man was a younger replica of his grandfather, Lucius. He even had the long and scraggly blond hair in a ponytail down his back. The man in the picture had looked more like Draco, but in person it was nearly frightening at how much Lucius's sons resembled him.

The man looked at him in shock as well, and before Scorpius could disarm him or put up a Shield Charm the man sent a spell straight at Scorpius.

Scorpius dodged the flash of green light he was sure was the Killing Curse, but with the next spell, he wasn't so lucky. He didn't escape the dreadful color. He didn't dodge it. He couldn't save himself from it. He cried out in pain as it felt like every bone in his body shattered. As if felt like a thousand knives were attacking him. His lungs felt like they were sinking and filling and he was gasping for breath, trying to reach for a glimpse of air and survival through the haze induced by the gut wrenching pain. Scorpius was struggling not to surrender. But the knives were still stabbing him, twisting inside of him, and his lungs were still filling.

And then everything went black.

* * *

Rose picked up the phone on the fourth ring while cursing the caller for disturbing her midday nap. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Malfoy?"

"Yes, may I ask whose calling?" _Please don't be about Scorpius, please don't let him be hurt,_ Rose begged.

"This is Mrs. Oaks, your daughter Mia's teacher."

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. Sometimes, the Ministry didn't send owls or patronuses when someone was injured on the job and they called, instead.

"Oh, yes, hello, is anything wrong?"

"Uh, well, we think your daughter might have dragon pox."

Rose sat up and quickly grabbed her coat and gloves sticking them on as she juggled the phone. "I'll be right there to pick her up," Rose said as she slid on her boots and grabbed her keys and bag.

"Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy, she'll be in the nurse's office."

The teacher hung up the phone and Rose rushed out the door and Apparated to the school.

She rushed through the hallways up to the nurse's office. "Mia!" she called.

"Mummy!" the little girl came rushing at Rose and clung onto her.

"Hi honey, how are you feeling?" Rose asked, knowing the question was in vain because Mia only ever called her 'mummy' when she wasn't feeling well. Cassie was a mummy person, not Mia.

The nurse stepped over. "You must be Mia's mum," she said.

"Yes, hi, I'm Rose," she said rubbing Mia's back. "Is she sick?"

"She has a fever and spots all over her face. You need to take her home, get her checked out by a doctor. If she's alright then bring a note back from the doctor for her to go back to school. Call me if she's sick and let me know how long she'll be out of school for. The contagious period usually lasts about a week but we don't want her back until she's fully recovered."

Rose nodded. "Come on, Mia, let's go home."

Mia nodded against Rose's hip and grabbed onto her hand. Rose picked up Mia's bag with her other hand and Rose Apparated them home.

Rose dumped Mia's backpack by the front door and her bag. She picked Mia up and carried her up the stairs. Rose put her into her own bed and pulled the comforter up to her chin. Mia looked so little in there. And it was weird to see someone in there who wasn't Scorpius.

Rose grabbed the thermometer out of the closet and took Mia's temperature with it. "Yikes," she mumbled. She'd have to give Mia some of the Tylenol. Two entire bottles by the looks of it. Jesus, how high could temperatures go without brain damage? "Honey, do you want some juice?"

Mia nodded.

"Alright, I'll be right back."

Rose went downstairs and grabbed the medicine and poured the juice into a sippy cup. She gasped. Kate and Cassie!

Rose grabbed the phone and called Lily at work. She picked up on the first ring.

"Can you do me a big favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Mia has the dragon pox and I really need you to pick up Cassie and Kate. Cassie's at preschool and Kate's at daycare, but it's in the same building as the preschool. You know where that is, right?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll go get them. Don't worry."

"Oh, shoot. Are you sure you can still stay here?"

Lily laughed. "Mum and I have already had dragon pox. Years ago. When I was four. And Mum had it around that age, too. Your mum will never get it because she's muggleborn. Calm down, we'll help."

"Okay, okay. Thank you so much," Rose gushed.

"Of course honey, now calm down, and just focus on Mia."

Rose exhaled. "At least it's just Mia and no one else is hurt or sick or anything."

"Yeah, you've still got that," Lily said.


	13. Chapter 12

Ron saw it happen. He saw his son-in-law go down. He didn't know what spell had hit him, but he'd seen the way Scorpius's face had contorted in pain. Ron had felt his bones shatter when he'd heard the bloodcurdling sound that came from Scorpius when he'd been hit. A cross between a shout, scream, and the sound Wesley had made when hooked up to The Machine. The six-fingered man had been reincarnated in Ophiuchus.

Harry and the others overpowered the four anti-muggleborn activists, and Ophiuchus, and Scorpius was still prostrate and unmoving on the ground, the dirt around him stained red.

Ron rushed to the unconscious man. Scorpius's body was covered in little puncture wounds and there was a large gushing gash across his chest where Ron saw the spell had hit him. He was practically spurting blood. Ron blanched.

He pulled out his wand and saw Matt rush over and he began to wave his wand over Scorpius's body. Ron looked up at the man working on his daughter's husband and was thankful that Matt had almost become a Healer.

The bleeding was barely stopping. Matt looked devastatingly at his superior. "It's not working," he muttered to Ron. "We need to get him to St. Mungo's. _Now_."

Ron nodded, grabbed Scorpius's arm, and Apparated to London.

* * *

"Rose! Rose! ROSE!" Ginny tore through the house, searching for her niece. She was breathing heavily and could barely think over the pounding in her head.

Harry had sent her a patronous. "Scorpius is injured. At St. Mungo's. Tell Rose." His voice had sounded _frightened._ Like Scorpius was deathly hurt. Like he was going to _die_.

"ROSE!" Ginny shrieked. She knew how awful it was when someone came to tell you that your husband was lying in the hospital, not moving, stark white and pale as death.

"Aunt Ginny? What's wrong?" Rose appeared at the top of the stairs. She was pale and fingering the ends of her braid nervously. The bags under her eyes were dark and almost translucent. Her blue eyes were rimmed in red as if she'd been awake and crying for at least two nights.

Ginny walked up the stairs and hugged Rose. "Honey," she took a deep breath, "Scorpius got hurt. You need to get to St. Mungo's." Rose's eyes widened and Ginny felt her stop breathing for a second. "I'll stay with Mia. Go, quick."

Rose nodded. "Lily's coming with Cassie and Kate, later. Tell Mia I'll be back soon," Rose hoped so much that those words were true. "Thanks, Aunt Ginny," she muttered as she ran out the door into the snow, her coat in her hand and wearing her slippers with the giant ducks on them, Apparated to London.

* * *

Rose flew into the entrance. "Scorpius Malfoy," she practically screamed the name at the man at the front desk.

The man tried to make calming sounds but Rose's eyes narrowed and she scowled dangerously. "Where. Is. He." She growled.

"Fourth floor. Room 784," the man whispered, obviously afraid of the flaring temper of the fearsome redhead before him. And probably the giant duck heads on her feet that passed for slippers.

Rose tore out of the room and up the elevator. She wondered absentmindedly why such easily scared people were working in a place where people come in frantic all the time.

Rose burst into room 784 and halted in the doorway at a dead stop, unable to continue because she must be in the wrong room. The man lying in the bed couldn't possibly be her husband. The man there looked too sick, too pale, too blank.

But it _was_ Scorpius.

The healer by his bedside looked up at the noise of Rose's entrance. "Hello?"

Rose nodded and came over to sit by Scorpius. She reached for his hand and held it tight with her own.

"Are you his wife?" the healer asked.

Rose nodded again. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the bandages wrapped around his chest with light bloodstains beginning to show through them. There were miniscule gashes all over every visible inch of his body.

"What-what happened?" Rose asked. She couldn't think. She felt like she was drowning. It wasn't safe for her to think. If she did, she'd start to think about Scorpius dying.

The healer frowned. Rose pretended not to notice. "He was hit with a spell that…" the man stuttered and looked up at her, obviously not sure if she should hear it. Rose matched his gaze and he took a breath. "The spell is a version of the Cruciatus Curse. But worse. It caused him to feel like every bone in his body shattered. As you can see," the healer dropped back into critical, analytical tones like he'd probably learned in school about how to impersonalize things, "it left little puncture wounds all over his body and the bandages," he indicated the white gauze covering Scorpius's chest, "are over a long, deep gash where the spell hit him. It hit a lung, but missed his heart. He lost a lot of blood. Every single one of his bones was broken," Rose gasped, "and he is still unconscious. We've been giving him blood-replenishing potions but he's still a little low and we gave him enough Skele-Gro to, hopefully, re-grow all of his bones and fix them. But his body hasn't been completely responding. It's healing, but it's healing at the rate at which it would heal if we were not using magic."

Rose ran her hand over Scorpius's shoulder; her hand maneuvered around the scars she couldn't stand to see let alone touch.

"I'm Healer Lottson, by the way," the man said.

Rose nodded and focused on her husband again. She vaguely heard the healer leave the room.

His hair was mussed, like usual. That was no different than normal; but it was only a very small comfort to Rose in comparison to how the rest of his face differed from how she'd always seen it. There was a dark purple bruise covering the top of his cheekbone and his eye. Another gash went across his jaw line but looked like it was fading.

He looked so pale, Rose thought. She sank into the uncomfortable plastic chair next to the bed, gripping tightly onto Scorpius's hand. Paler than normal. And normal was pretty darn pale.

Rose gently traced the gash across her husband's chest. Was it hurting him? Rose choked when she thought about the spell that the healer had said had hit him. Broken every single bone in his body. Felt more pain than the Cruciatus. Feeling like every bone in his body shattered. So much blood was gone. Was that why he was so pale? She had no idea. She wasn't a healer.

_Oh, God,_ Rose felt like she couldn't breathe. The healer, Lottson, had said that he was only healing at a normal rate; a rate without magic. Was it possible to heal like that? Rose had no idea. She should probably ask her mum. Hermione would know.

Rose ran her thumb over Scorpius's hand. The veins stood out.

She had no idea what she could possibly do without this man here. He was her life. Him and the girls. That was all she had. Truth be told, it was all she wanted.

Rose almost chuckled when she thought of how hard she'd fought Scorpius. She didn't want to believe him when he'd said he loved her. She didn't want to believe in love. Rose hadn't believed that Scorpius had wanted to be with her. But now she couldn't picture life without him.

She couldn't live her life without him sleeping next to her every night; without him pulling her right up against him, spooning her. She couldn't last without arguing with Scorpius everyday using biting harsh words and ending up 'making up' on the kitchen table or in the garden or the linen closet or some other equally strange place. She couldn't live without his grin lighting up his face when he was thinking something dirty or when he was about to start a food fight. She couldn't prevail without Scorpius rocking Kate to sleep or attempting to sing a lullaby to the girls or chasing Mia and Cassie in a game of tag. The girls would suffer drastically without their father.

And she would suffer so much without him by her side.

He'd always been there. No matter what. No matter if they were twelve and dumping frog guts into Slughorn's potion or ready to kill each other with hexes or sitting in detention insanely bored, he had always been standing beside her.

But now he wasn't standing beside her; he was_ lying_ beside her in a hospital bed. And it scared her shitless.

* * *

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	14. Chapter 13

**Thanks for waiting for the update! I hope you like the chapter.**

* * *

"Auntie Ginny, where's Mummy?" Mia moaned and buried herself deeper into the big, fluffy comforter.

Ginny moved Mia's hair out of her face. "She's with your dad. She'll be back soon."

"Daddy?" Mia asked.

Ginny rubbed Mia's back. "He'll be home soon, too," she promised wildly.

"I want my mum," Mia sniffled, desperately trying not to cry.

"Rose!" a voice called downstairs. Ginny heard the rustling of coats and her daughter's voice coaxing Cassie and Kate onto the couch to watch some TV. "Rose!" she called again.

"I'll be right back," Ginny murmured to Mia and kissed her gently on the forehead. She remembered when James, Al, and Lily had the dragon pox. It was a nightmare. She'd never really understood her mum when she'd said that the thing she hated most was when her kids were sick because she felt completely helpless. When Ginny's kids had first gotten sick, she'd realized what Molly had meant.

"Hi, Mum, what're you doing here?" Lily asked as Ginny arrived downstairs.

Ginny checked to make sure that Cassie and Kate were thoroughly enraptured by the television and gestured for Lily to follow her into the kitchen.

"Where's Rose?" Lily asked. More like demanded.

Ginny sighed. "She's at St. Mungo's. Your dad contacted me and said that Scorpius was injured. I don't know what happened," she added as she saw what her daughter was about to ask.

Lily squirmed. "Do you know anything?"

Ginny shook her head and leaned back against the counter, trying not to bite her lip with worry. "No."

"Rose must be out of her mind with worry," Lily said. "Should we go over there? Bring her some food, bring the girls, something?"

"I don't know if she'd want the girls over there. And Mia has the dragon pox anyways."

Lily nodded and was quiet for a moment. "Should we be making the news travel through the family grapevine or do we want to keep it quiet because it was on a 'top-secret auror mission' kind of thing?"

"I have no idea. Your dad didn't say much of anything, whatsoever. Most likely we need to keep it under wraps."

Lily nodded again and sighed. "Poor, Rose. I'm going to go sit with Mia for awhile, you can go if you like; Cassie and Kate are all set for awhile."

"I'll stay," Ginny brushed a hand over Lily's head and moved her hair out of her face while smiling warmly. Lily wondered how her mother could always be comforting even at the most horrible times as Ginny went over to sit with the two younger girls.

Lily went upstairs and snuggled under the comforters with Mia. "Hey, honey, how're you doing?"

"Mhmm," Mia mumbled and curled up closer to Lily. Lily wrapped her arms around the girl and rubbed her back gently.

"Just go to sleep, I'll stay with you," Lily whispered.

Mia nodded and sunk into a deep slumber.

* * *

Ron's patronus had freaked Hermione out. Just "Scorpius is hurt, at St. Mungo's." You'd think that after so many years of them knowing each other he'd have known better than to just give that information, Hermione fumed.

She stepped into the St. Mungo's waiting room on the fourth floor and saw her husband sitting down on one of the uncomfortable couches, looking nervous. Hermione sat down next to him and patted his knee. "How is he?"

Ron leaned over and hugged her tightly, breathing in her scent. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," Hermione said and kissed him briefly. "How is he?" she repeated.

Ron shook his head. "We're not really sure. Hit with a curse worse than the Cruciatus."

Hermione's breath caught. She remembered all too well the Cruciatus at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. "Will he be alright?"

"The curse broke every bone in his body," Ron's voice shook. "The healer said that this curse feels like every bone in your body is shattering, plus the usual feeling of the Cruciatus. He's healing, but at a rate without magic. Rose is in there with him."

Hermione nodded and squeezed Ron's hand. "He'll be alright."

"How do you know?" his voice rasped.

"Because, he's Scorpius. He'd overcome anything if it meant being with Rose and his daughters."

Ron nodded without any real conviction.

"Did you contact Draco and Astoria, yet?"

"Yeah. But they're in France and there's no way for them to get back until later tonight." Ron sighed. "They must be going mental."

"Yes, they probably are. How's Rose?"

"Catatonic."

Hermione nodded. "I'll go and see her. I'll be right back."

* * *

"Rose?" Hermione said; she gently rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Rose looked up at her mum. "Hi," she mumbled.

"How is he?"

"Unconscious. That's what they're most worried about." Rose's voice was shaky. Hermione wondered how she was even speaking if she was, as Ron had described her, catatonic. "The healer came back in a few hours ago and said that his bones are starting to respond to the Skele-Gro, but the longer he stays unconscious, the more likely it is that he won't – won't…wake up." Rose's voice choked up at the end.

Hermione rubbed Rose back and Rose almost had a fleeting smile at where she must have learned it from. Everyone in the family did it. Rose wondered if they'd all learned it from Molly.

Hermione remembered vividly seeing her own husband lying pallid on a hospital bed in St. Mungo's. She and Ginny were experts when it came to pacing in St. Mungo's hallways waiting for their husbands to heal.

Rose gripped Scorpius's hand tighter. A startled, frightened scream left her mouth as she felt his fingers twitch.

* * *

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	15. Chapter 14

James didn't bother with knocking. He was too keyed up to knock. It wasn't just the fact that Callie was pregnant, either.

It was Scorpius. Lying almost dead in a bed in St. Mungo's.

It was Rose, his other little sister, stark white, biting her lip, willing the tears not to fall as she gripped his hand and waited for another twitch of his fingers. Waiting for a movement that may never come.

And it was the fact that he didn't want his kid to be stuck with a life like that.

James burst into his dad's study. Sure enough, Harry was in there. And he looked like he was about to start nursing a bottle of whisky. He looked up in surprise.

James grimaced and held up his own bottle. The one he'd been intent on sharing with his dad.

Harry gave a half-smile and James sat down at the desk. They didn't need words to communicate. Not much, at least. Harry was perceptive. So was James, even though he was never credited as being so.

"I want to come back," James said. His voice was unwavering, his eyes locking onto his father's, and his shoulders set. His decision made up. "I'm quitting Puddlemere. I want to come back to the Aurors."

Harry didn't break eye contact with his son. But he sighed and leaned back in his chair, tipping a glass of amber liquor down his throat. He'd known this was going to happen. When James had quit the Auror program after training, he'd said only one thing about it, and then had never spoken about it again. Harry had often wondered if he and Callie had discussed it ever. All James had said was, "I'm not my dad." And he'd slapped his resignation down on the desk and walked out of the Ministry. Since then, he hadn't set foot back in there.

Harry had known it'd happen one day; but he'd thought it'd be because James would be older and unable to play Quidditch or he'd have gotten an injury that prohibited him from playing. He thought that James would almost be forced back because he'd never been one to sit on the sidelines of a game he loved and have to watch or write when he could play.

"Why?" Harry cringed as his voice rasped from lack of use and the liquor.

"I'm not sitting back when I can do something. I was good; you know it, I know it, hell, the whole department knew it, then. I want back in," James argued fiercely.

Harry took his eyes off of his eldest son for the first time since he'd burst in. He took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

He was exhausted. This mission, this situation, everything was draining him. He was Head of the Department; he could bring his son back in with no questions asked. Like James had said, he'd been good. He'd been fantastic, the greatest recruit in many years.

But Harry didn't know if James had done so well because he'd tried to live up to Harry's reputation or because it came naturally to him. Oh shit, Harry knew that was crap. James had the talent, had the skill, knew the material. But he was years out of action. And Harry wasn't going to bring him back on a whim. He wasn't going to bring him back because his son had lost some more of his innocence.

Scorpius in the hospital: Rose was too young to be a widow.

But Harry suspected that a loss of innocence on James's part had landed him in the Auror Department in the first place. Witnessing his cousin being raped. His other little sister, as everyone knew she was to him. Now that Harry knew this, he could remember seeing the determination flood James's eyes when he'd been training. James had been focused on one thing: making sure there was no one else in the world who'd dare to hurt anyone like that.

When James had realized that would never be possible, he'd quit. And signed onto Puddlemere. And began playing with his younger brother.

"Are you sure?"

James nodded. "I'm going to make the bastards pay for what they did to Rose, to Scorpius, and to their daughters. For what they did to all of us. Look at us. Moping around, drinking alcohol, bitter and filled with desperation. If I can do something about it, you can bet that I'm sure as hell going to."

* * *

"Mummy, are you there?" Mia's voice rang feebly through the air as Rose slipped under the comforters, joining her daughter.

"Yeah, sweetie, I'm here," Rose brushed Mia's hair away from her forehead. "Are you feeling any better?"

They went through this exchange every night. Scorpius had been lying unconscious in the hospital for almost two weeks, now. Mia was getting better, slowly but steadily. Rose had no idea that dragon pox could have ever lasted this long, never having had it herself.

"A little," Mia said.

Rose could see it. The green spots were slowly disappearing and the fever was almost gone. According to Ginny, Mia would be completely fine again within the next few days. The spots and the fever were the only symptoms she had left, along with being so exhausted all the time.

"What did you do today?"

"Watched the telly with Cassie and Kate and Aunt Lily."

Rose silently thanked Lily yet again for having been there. Lily was working from home and taking care of the girls for the day while Rose was sitting with Scorpius. She, Astoria, and Draco were taking shifts sitting with Scorpius. They were all anxiously awaiting his return to consciousness.

But they were so incredibly worried about Scorpius. The healer said that the longer he stayed in a coma the less likely he was to wake up. And it had almost been two weeks.

Now when the healers came in to check on Scorpius while they were in there, they cast her pitying looks. They didn't believe he'd ever wake up.

But Rose was refusing to believe them. She'd felt him grab onto his fingers; she _had._ She'd swear she had. But the longer he went without responding, the less sure of it she was.

As terrible as it was, Rose hated that it was Mia in the bed when she came home, and not Scorpius.

And since Mia was sick and sleeping in the bed with her, Rose couldn't cry herself to sleep with worry over her husband. She had to stay strong for the girls; she couldn't let them see that she was desperately worried for their dad, because then they'd become exponentially scared, as well.

She'd tried to just let it all out while she was in the shower, but she couldn't. She'd hoped the running water would mask the sobs, but they just wouldn't come. Rose felt too broken to cry. She felt almost empty.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

She wasn't a healer, she couldn't help Scorpius. All she could do was sit by his bedside, hold his hand, and wish desperately that he'd wake up. That he'd show some sign of being alive.

Rose would give up so much if Scorpius would just be healed. If he would just be awake.

Sometime in her musing, Rose had drifted off to sleep. She awoke surrounded by four girls: Mia, Cassie, Kate, and Lily.

Rose smiled and let her arms drape over her daughters. She hugged them tight to her. No matter what happened to Scorpius, these girls would always be the most important. She would have to get on without him for their daughters.

It was all she could do for him right now.


	16. Chapter 15

_Dear Rose,_

_Hey, Rose, how are you? I hope you're having a lot of fun with the girls and Scorpius now that you're taking time off. Martha and I were wondering if you and your family were available to have dinner over at our house this Sunday? We're missing you!_

_Nathaniel_

Rose replied to the letter and wished desperately that this sort of thing was her greatest concern.

They hadn't had dinner with Nathaniel and Martha in weeks, it felt like. Rose wasn't really sure, but she missed them. So did the girls. Mia and Cassie kept asking for 'Grampy Natie' and 'Grammy Martha'.

Rose sealed the finished letter and put it back in her bag. She'd taken to bringing something with her when she went to visit Scorpius to keep her occupied and thinking of happier things.

She reached over and held Scorpius's hand. It was the same hand she'd been holding the entire time he'd been in St. Mungo's. Rose wondered briefly if she was hurting Scorpius by holding his hand. Were the bones failing to heal because of her grip?

Healer Lottson bustled into the room. "Hello, Rose," he smiled briefly but distractedly.

"How is he doing?" Rose asked at once.

"I'm checking his vitals and progress right now, would you mind stepping back a bit, please?"

Rose nodded and moved off to the side.

Healer Lottson waved his wand around Scorpius's body, poking and prodding. He paused at the hand Rose had been holding. Healer Lottson frowned and waved his wand over it again. Scorpius's hand glowed orange quickly before returning to its normal shade of being utterly pale.

"Mrs. Malfoy, do you hold your husband's hand when you sit with him?" the healer asked without looking at her.

"Yes," Rose replied, mystified. She'd noticed that he only called her 'Mrs. Malfoy' when he had something serious to say or he was attempting to figure something out.

"Do you hold his right hand?"

Rose affirmed it again.

Healer Lottson stared at Scorpius's hand. He glanced at Rose then back to Scorpius's hand.

The expression of frustrated puzzlement faded on Healer Lottson's face and was gradually replaced with an expression of dawning relief and knowledge.

"Heat!" he cried. "His bones are healing with heat!"

* * *

Rose stared in wonder at the tube encasing her husband. They'd turned the temperature up in the tube to make it a summer-like atmosphere, unlike the atmosphere in St. Mungo's.

It turned out that Astoria and Rose had both been holding the same hand, Scorpius's right, and that their body heat had been healing the bones in his hand.

Now he was encased in a tube where heat was pressing in on him. Rose was filled with hope that she worried was futile. What if this didn't work?

Rose shook her head. She couldn't think like that.

Hopefully, now Scorpius would begin to come out of his coma. Healer Lottson had told her that people go into comas to heal. Scorpius had been staying in his coma because he wasn't healing, but now that they were onto a lead on how to heal him, he may come out of his coma.

She desperately hoped so. If not for her, then for Mia and Cassie and Kate. Cassie had woken up crying from a nightmare the night before last and had begged for 'Daddy'. Rose had comforted Cassie as best she could but Cassie always wanted Scorpius's arms to hold her and to curl her up against him when she woke up from nightmares. The girls needed their dad. And she needed her husband.

She felt like a broken record. But she couldn't think of much else. It was just the same thing hour after hour and day after day: sit with Scorpius then go home to the girls. Thank Lily a hundred thousand times. Eat. Sleep. Do it all over again.

Lily was being her savior. She worked from the house, took care of Mia while she was there, brought Cassie to and from preschool, played with Kate, cooked them their meals. Rose had no doubt that Lily would be a fantastic mother. She'd be a fantastic nanny, too; Rose almost giggled at the thought.

Healer Lottson reappeared through the doorway, a huge grin on his face. "Rose, I'm so happy to tell you that Scorpius's bones are healing incredibly fast since we've begun treating him with the heat. It's strange that this is a cure for this sort of curse, as heat usually helps to loosen muscles and that's why it's used in physical therapy, but it's working and I'm not going to question it. His bones should be healed within the next day or two, at this rate." Healer Lottson just would not stop grinning and Rose found it infectious.

"Thank you so much," Rose gushed and practically threw her arms around the healer in a hug. "Thank you so much."

Healer Lottson smiled and patted her back. "You're welcome, Rose. Don't worry; we'll make sure he gets better. I promise we are going to heal him."

* * *

Lily walked over to the door, Kate on her hip. She readjusted Kate as she peeked through the eyehole to see her cousin's mother-in-law standing there.

"Hi, Astoria," she greeted Scorpius's mother as she opened the door.

The woman's tight face broke into a strained smile. "Hello, Lily, is Rose home?"

Lily nodded. "She's sleeping. Shall I go wake her up for you?"

Astoria nodded and stepped inside as Lily gestured for her to.

Rose was clutching onto the pillow with a leg and arm wrapped around it pulling it to her tightly when Lily walked in to wake her up. Lily's face showed a brief grimace as she realized that Rose's subconscious was probably substituting the pillow for Scorpius, before shaking Rose's shoulder gently.

"Rose, Rose, Astoria's here to see you," Lily said softly.

Rose didn't move. Lily had forgotten how dead to the world Rose slept sometimes. At least she wasn't sleepwalking.

Lily pushed Rose harder. Still nothing. She ripped the pillow out from underneath her head. Nope.

Lily shoved Rose's entire body off the bed.

"Aaaarghhh!" Rose shrieked as she hit the ground.

Lily grinned and waved. "Wake-y, wake-y!"

Rose sat on the ground staring up at her cousin with wide eyes and a slacked jaw. Then, she started to laugh.

It was a great bellyaching laugh that started in the depths of her throat and bubbled up to her mouth where it escaped. Tears of laughter sprang from her eyes and made their way down her cheeks red from mirth. Rose was laughing. And once she started, she felt like she couldn't stop.

Her shoulders were shaking and she had to lean against the side of the bed.

Lily soon found herself enraptured by giggles: it was contagious. She sank down next to Rose against the bed.

They didn't know how long they sat there, exhausted from their cackling.

"So, why did you wake me up?" Rose finally asked.

"Astoria's downstairs," Lily responded.

That seemed to actually wake, and get, Rose up.

Astoria was seated primly on the couch when Rose finally made her way down there.

"Hi, Astoria," she smiled and gave her mother-in-law a timid hug. Astoria clung onto her, though, and Rose felt herself giving her a real, hard hug.

"The healer sent me an owl. Is it true? Is Scorpius healing?" Astoria asked frantically, nervously fingering the ends of her scarf.

Rose grinned and nodded. "They discovered heat would help him heal. Our body heat was healing the bones in his hand as we held it."

Astoria pressed a hand to her heart and closed her eyes. "Oh, dear God," she breathed. When she opened her eyes again, they were filled with tears.

"Why are you here and not at St. Mungo's with him?" Rose asked.

"I couldn't-" Astoria's comment fell short with an almost agony, but Rose understood what she meant. She wouldn't be able to bear it if she went there with her hopes up only for them to be completely dashed upon seeing Scorpius, still laid out on the bed with pallid complexion.

"Is Draco with him, now?"

Astoria nodded. "He couldn't wait to go in and see him after we got the letter," she gave a small smile at the whims and fancies of her husband. But her face became a bit sinister once more and the small lines at the edges of her eyes and mouth became more pronounced on her otherwise young face. "He thinks it's his fault, because he showed Scorpius the will. He thinks that if he hadn't told anyone about the will none of this would have happened."

So Draco had told Astoria, mused Rose. She said, "It would have still happened. Scorpius knows that. Draco does too, inside. He shouldn't blame himself."

Astoria gave Rose a look of comradeship. "We know that, but he doesn't."

"Us women are just of far superior intellect and skills of detection, aren't we?" Rose laughed. She felt so free and giddy with the newfound knowledge and progress in Scorpius's health. It was setting her out of her cage and she was flying free.

Astoria chuckled along with her.

And Rose was flying free, with Scorpius beside her. Because things were going to be alright, she could only hope.

She knew she shouldn't let herself forget that things could go wrong. That things wouldn't work out. But she didn't want to. She wanted to imagine all the long years that she and Scorpius had ahead of them. And they would spend those years together. It was all she could think about.

* * *

**Thanks so much for continuing with this story for so long! It means so much! I have a lot of chapters written so hopefully I'll be updating more frequently from now on.**

**Please review!**


	17. Chapter 16

Victoire wrapped her coat more tightly around herself as she shivered against the cold winds racing through the streets of London.

She leaned up against the glass and whispered, 'Victoire Lupin, here to see Scorpius Malfoy," to the mannequin behind the window.

Victoire reached Scorpius's room, only to halt in the doorway as she saw the woman sitting next to the bed, staring forlornly at the tube which encased Scorpius. The woman had blonde hair, sat up straight, and far too many age lines criss-crossed her pale face to be Rose.

Victoire sighed. She'd been so intent upon cheering her cousin up after hearing the whispered conversation between Teddy and her uncle Harry. She still couldn't believe that they'd kept it all a secret. But she was going to help Rose, even if she wasn't supposed to know.

She finally found Rose in the cafeteria, staring into a cup of coffee that had long ceased to steam from heat.

She dropped into the seat across from her, making a clattering sound so as to alert Rose to her presence before she freaked out and threw the coffee across the room.

Rose looked up at her slowly. Only after a moment did recognition take the place of hopelessness on the features of her face. "Hey, Vic. What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Vic huffed and tossed her hair behind her shoulders. "I'm here to sit with you."

Rose looked up at her quizzically. "How do you know?"

Rose watched as Vic shifted guiltily then abandoned the act and smiled craftily. "I overheard Teddy and Uncle Harry talking about it." The smile on her face soon changed to concern. "How are you doing? How are the girls?"

Rose sighed and sank into her chair. She rubbed her hands across her eyes. "I'm just…exhausted," she confessed. "The girls don't know very much. They don't really know what's going on, I'm afraid. I thought it'd be best," she said. "I don't want them to worry."

"They're probably worrying about you, anyways," Victoire said. Smoothly, she changed the subject, hearing the desperate tendency in Rose's voice, "How is Mia doing with the dragon pox? I heard about it last week. You know the family grapevine."

"It's gone now," Rose smiled thankfully. It had been hell. Hopefully, Cassie and Kate could avoid it. But she wasn't going to count on it.

Victoire eyed the drink sitting in front of Rose. "Er, Rose, do you drink coffee?"

Rose shook her head. "I figured I'd start. Then realized I abhor the taste of it."

They sat in silence for a bit. Victoire sensed that Rose just needed someone by her, just to show that they cared. Of course Hermione, Ginny, Lily would stand by her, but Rose always wanted to appear so strong in front of everyone. Maybe she'd loosen up for Victoire.

Rose closed her eyes and leaned back in the plastic chair. Tomorrow the healers were going to try to wake Scorpius up. The heat-tube thing, as Rose called it, had healed his bones at an amazingly fast rate. The healers were just worried about him being in a coma now. There was a spell, astonishingly simple as it was used by everyone to _enervate_ after stupefying, that they were going to use on him. The healers hadn't said anything, but Rose knew by their shifting posture and darting eyes that they didn't have any fallbacks after this one. She knew by the way they slumped into the room to check on Scorpius and avoided her eyes. If this didn't work, they were out of luck.

"You know," Victoire said, "I don't think you've been to one of Al's games in awhile. There's one tonight. Why don't we take the kids and Teddy and Lily and everybody? I'm sure Mia's dying to get out after being cooped up for so long."

Rose almost smiled. Mia was making herself sick by hating being confined in the house. Just last night she'd cried herself to sleep because she couldn't camp in the backyard, instead.

"That sounds like a great idea," Rose agreed. "I'll talk to Al and see what time the game is. I don't know if Lily can go. She's been taking so much time off of work lately to help me and I don't want her to take any more time off. I would hate it if I were the reason she lost her job."

Victoire waved her hand away. "I'll talk to her. Now, shoo, and go ask Al." Victoire felt triumph grace her as Rose gave a small smile and tottered off to the floo. Staying in the hospital for so much time wasn't good for her, Vic knew.

She'd always thought Scorpius was going to be Rose's downfall. It appeared like it would be true, if he didn't wake up, at least. Even if he did, it appeared as if he still might cause her breakdown; Rose probably thought she cared too much about him and it made her weaker.

* * *

"_Mum_, je veux aller maintenant! I want to go now!" Remus stomped his foot. He started to whine again but a look from Teddy quelled it instantly.

Victoire wasn't even paying attention. She was talking to Lily a few feet away and immersed intensely in the conversation.

Teddy was getting Remus and Claire ready for the Quidditch match. Though he'd stopped his son's whining, he was getting antsy himself. He hadn't seen one of Al's matches in months and though Al hadn't said anything directly, Teddy knew he was hurting about it.

Teddy's ears perked up as he caught a whispered bit of the conversation between his wife and Lily. "She's going to become depressed without me, I have to stay there," he heard Lily say.

He shrugged and turned away to button up Claire's coat. Vic would tell him later, anyways.

"But you can't give up your own life to help hers," Victoire reprimanded her cousin. "You have your own job and your own life. It's not always all about the family, Lils."

"I know, I know," Lily sighed. "I want to quit, anyways. My boss is…" she hesitated before finishing quickly, "hard to deal with."

The way Lily said it made Victoire's eyebrow quirk upwards. "Hard to deal with," she repeated. "And by 'hard to deal with' do you mean devilishly-handsome-and-I've-shagged-him-so-I-can't-show-my-face-there-again or stop-harassing-me-and-being-a-hardass-git?"

Lily cringed. "How about both?"

"Lily!" Victoire cried, exasperated. Teddy, Remus, and Claire all jumped and looked over at the pair.

Lily's eyes flashed. "The hard ass part was before, alright? We actually got to know each other while I was assigned on a project with him and I really like him, alright? And maybe he really likes me? So, so what if he's old enough to be my father? It really doesn't matter! What _does_ matter is that I can't go to work anymore because his assistant found out and is threatening my job and saying she'll slap my boss with a sexual harassment lawsuit if I continue to work there. So sod off and let me enjoy being with Rose and the rest of the family because you all are the only people I've got!"

Victoire stood there, gob smacked, as Lily turned on her heel and stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

Victoire turned around to see Teddy and the kids staring.

"Mummy," Claire asked, "what's sexual harassment?"

* * *

"Cassie, where's your jacket?" Rose called, searching furiously through the hall closet but only finding random pool toys and junk from before even Hermione was born. Did they ever clean it out?

"Upstairs! Is Remus coming to the game?" Cassie and Remus had recently become best friends, both four years old, and they'd recently been glued to each other's sides when the family was together.

"I think so. Can you get your jacket on?"

"Mummy!" a wail screeched from the kitchen floor.

Rose darted over the mess she'd created and crashed into the kitchen to find Kate on the floor with her supper all over her.

"Aw, shit," she grumbled and began to clean the mess up, realizing afterwards that she could've used magic.

"Rose, are you ready?" Lily walked into the back door.

"Almost," she said as Lily opened the refrigerator and began to make snacks to bring to the game. Rose didn't notice the redness around Lily's eyes. She swished her wand and the food stains on Kate's clothes vanished.

Mia ran down the stairs clutching her foam finger for Puddlemere, her favorite team, which supposedly had nothing to do with the fact that their seeker was her favorite uncle whom they were going to go watch.

Ten minutes later, everyone was ready. Rose and Lily had forced the girls into their coats, hats, mittens, and boots and even managed to wrestle Kate and Cassie into the stroller.

"Everyone ready?" Rose asked.

Four nods answered her. Rose grabbed the stroller and Mia's hand, who grabbed onto her aunt Lily, and apparated them away.

Teddy stood next to Victoire with Remus and Claire, fuming. They were waiting for Lily, Rose, and the girls to join them at the entrance to the stadium so they could see Puddlemere crush the Arrows and for Al to catch the snitch in record time.

He shouldn't be standing there angry at Lily for being in a relationship with not only her boss, but someone supposedly old enough to be her father.

Teddy realized he should probably use the term 'relationship' loosely in this case.

Victoire laid a soothing hand on Teddy's arm, knowing the exact thoughts going through her husband's head.

Rose and Lily appeared at the apparition point and Victoire waved them over. Mia grabbed Lily's hand and they sprinted up to them as Rose walked the stroller at a more leisurely pace. She was just enjoying being outside, even if it was freezing out.

"Hi Claire!" Mia arrived at the Lupin family. "Hi Remus! And Uncle Teddy and Aunt Victoire!" She grinned so big it looked like it was going to split her face in half and Victoire was reminded of Rose. Victoire noticed two teeth missing.

"When did you lose your teeth?"

"I haven't lost 'em!" Mia shook her head. "The tooth fairy took 'em! I got money for 'em, too." Mia fished around in her pockets and pulled out two knuts. "See!"

Victoire stifled a giggle.

"I get a sickle when I lose a tooth," Claire sniffed. Victoire poked her daughter in the back and gave her a stern look. Gabrielle, Fleur's sister, had visited for a few weeks and Claire had taken on her snobby nature recently. Fleur had pointed out that Victoire and Dominique had done it when they were younger but had grown out of it in a few days, so she wasn't overly worried. But when her daughter was incredibly rude to her very good friends, it bugged her that Gabrielle had that sort of influence on people.

"I lost it, though," Claire amended.

"Here, you can have one of my knuts!" Mia said.

Teddy erupted into laughter and Victoire elbowed him in the stomach. His laughs abruptly turned into choking coughs.

"Why did they ever name it that?" Rose asked, grinning.

They managed to make their way up to the box reserved for family members of the players without any major hassle or accident: a record, for them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, please welcome…PUDDLEMERE UNITED!" the announcer screamed and the crowd roared and cheered.

Rose was on her toes the entire game, just like everybody else in the stands.

She could feel her blood pounding as the Puddlemere chaser and captain did an aerial trick into the goal and scored. She remembered when she used to do that. Her body ached to do it again.

Mia screamed when Al dove into a Wronski Feint, thinking he was going to crash into the ground.

Kate fell asleep at the third goal, scored only eight minutes into the match, and was deaf to the shrieks and yelps all around her.

Teddy gripped the bar in front of them that let them stand up without plummeting to their deaths. He wanted to move next to Lily and shake her senseless, ask what the hell she was doing, but Victoire's strong grip on his hand didn't let him move. He knew she was only holding his hand to prevent him from screaming at his practically-sister.

Cassie and Remus spent the game poking each other and playing tag between their family members' legs.

Lily felt Teddy's hardened gaze on her and determinedly avoided eye contact with him throughout the match. She wasn't going to give him an excuse to get mad at her. It was her life, after all, not his. It's not like he'd been playing 'big brother' before, so why now? She had two older brothers already and didn't need a third. It's not like he'd always wanted to be her brother, especially when he and Vic had been broken up for a year.

The only time every one of them was thinking in unison was when Al caught the snitch. They cheered mercilessly. The people around them gave them a huge berth and began muttering and sneering.

They didn't care. They were too excited.

Too bad it only lasted a few moments.

After that, everything was still screwed up.

* * *

**So...that got a bit more dramatic, huh? Let me know what you think about Lily's character developing & having a bit of her own plot line, please! It's about to get even more dramatic for Lily in the next coming chapters. Less for Scorpius & Rose - hint, hint.**

**Please review!**


	18. Chapter 17

Rose sat anxiously beside Scorpius's bedside. Only fifteen more minutes and then they were going to _enervate _him.

She clutched onto his hand as she heard Draco and Astoria slip into the room and come up next to her.

None of them said anything; there wasn't really anything to say.

One of the healer trainees bustled in and inserted a needle into Scoripus's arm. Rose vaguely remembered her mum calling it an IV at some point or other.

Draco rested a hand on Rose's shoulder. She looked up startled and saw a grim 'let's get it over with' face on her father-in-law. But she also saw the determination of a father's love for his son and so she leaned into his hand and relished in its comfort. It may not have been Ron's hand, but it wasn't a terrible replacement right then.

A few more trainees came in along with Healer Lottson and a few other healers Rose didn't recognize, as well.

Healer Lottson spoke to them, told them what they were planning on doing and asked them to step away.

Rose held her breath and twisted her wedding ring round her finger nervously.

The healers simultaneously held out their wands over Scorpius and Rose was reminded of a pagan ritual sacrifice of some sort. She quickly pushed the thought away.

_"Enervate," _they said, in an almost whisper.

Rose stared intently at her husband. Waiting, waiting, for something, anything. A twitch of his hand again, maybe, or a flutter of an eyelid. Waiting, and waiting. She stood nervously on the balls of her feet. _Come on, Scorp, come on, you can wake up_, she pleaded desperately.

Waiting, waiting. Astoria stood rigidly to her husband's right, Rose on the left. Draco had his arm around his wife, standing just as stock still as she. Rose wondered absently where Scorpius had got his fluidity from when his family was just straight, straight, straight.

Rose lurched forward. Had he twitched?

Healer Lottson regarded the clock as the trainees continued to monitor Scorpius. He'd said that the procedure was to try the spell three times, wait a minute in between each for him to show signs of waking up.

_"Enervate," _they said again.

This time, Rose saw it. She absolutely saw it. His eyelid had twitched. His eyelid always twitched in the morning just when he was waking up, in between sleep and a conscious state. It _always _twitched.

And then it opened. And then the other. And Scorpius's eyes were staring up at the ceiling. They darted around the healers and then to Rose and his parents.

Rose didn't breathe; she didn't dare.

Which was probably why, when her husband's eyes came to rest on her, she fainted.

* * *

"Did you hear?" Ron exclaimed, bounding into Harry's office at the ministry and sinking into one of the plush seats in front of his desk. He was sitting, but was exuding so much energy it looked like he was bouncing. "Scorpius woke up!"

Harry's head jerked up and he grinned.

James came barreling in a second later, laughing so hard he was turning purple, with news attached to Scorpius: "Didn't you hear, Uncle Ron? Rosie fainted when Scorp woke up!"

* * *

The family had a huge dinner to celebrate at the Burrow, everyone finally knowing the circumstances. Rose didn't go, she was sitting with Scorpius, who was still in the hospital, but everybody else went. Hermione was taking care of her granddaughters for the day so Rose could stay with Scorpius and they could see their family.

It was where Teddy cornered Lily.

"It is none of your business, Teddy," Lily snarled and attempted to move away from him, but he blocked her. He towered over her and leaned on his hands, pressed against the wall above Lily's head.

Teddy sneered. Lily couldn't remember him ever looking so furious. Except for when Geoffrey Belby had called him a half-breed and said that werewolves shouldn't be allowed out in society, let alone at Hogwarts, at the platform when she was eight. Even then she'd known it was an awful thing to say.

"How come it isn't my business, Lily? I'm practically your brother!" he bellowed.

Lily scoffed. "Oh, yes, you must've felt so brotherly when you took my virginity. I didn't realize incest was your thing."

Teddy stumbled backwards. His eyes had grown wide and his hair had turned gray. Lily didn't even know what that shade meant; she couldn't remember ever having seen it before.

"I thought we weren't going to ever talk about that," his voice shook.

"It's not like you cheated, Teddy; you weren't going out with Vic at the time and I've never told anyone anyways." Even as Lily said it, she realized she felt a desperate need to confide in someone. Rose was the obvious choice. It wasn't like she could tell Victoire. Lily wouldn't want to, either; she'd always felt just a bit closer to Rose since Rose was so much closer in age. Rose hadn't been a golden girl like Victoire had; getting pregnant at seventeen usually came along with some not-so-great choices, and so Rose would sympathize with Lily better than Victoire.

Teddy ran a hand through his hair and took another angry step away before turning and slamming Lily into the wall.

Lily glanced around Teddy's frame anxiously, hoping no one had heard. They were on the third landing of the Burrow and she'd conveniently cast silencing charms when they'd come up there, so it was doubtful, thankfully.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, messing around with guys your dad's age?" he hissed. "It's a bad idea, Lily! You're going to get hurt and that assistant is going to say _you _were harassing your _boss_, not the other way around. And it's going to blow up, out of proportion, and everyone is going to know you're banging a senior citizen."

Lily shoved him away. "He's not a senior citizen. And my _boss_ told me that the assistant's just been transferred to Beijing so she's not going to be a problem. He's not married, Teddy. He likes me just as much as I like him. Get over yourself and stop trying to be my big brother. I already have two. And you never wanted to be my brother before, anyways."

"Stop saying 'before'."

"What? So I'm never allowed to be mad at you? Don't you think you deserve it?" Lily poked him in the chest hard and she saw him swallow. "Don't you think I deserve to be upset over the fact that you messed me around for a year? A _year_, Teddy. And then didn't speak to me for the just about the entire one after that. What, did you enjoy fucking me then acting like I didn't exist? Maybe you should've thought about my reaction before you decided to come to the house when you knew everyone was gone and kiss me like you did. Consequences, Teddy, hello! Cause and effect, it's pretty simple."

"Lily, I'm telling you, it's a bad idea to be screwing your boss, even if he weren't so much older."

"Get out of my way," Lily growled and shoved Teddy aside.

He crashed into the wall, knocking a picture off and shattering the glass, but Lily didn't notice; she'd already rushed down the stairs, brushing tears away furiously, and cursing the day Teddy had been born.

Teddy stared forlornly at the picture. "_Reparo_," he muttered. The glass flew back into place, covering a picture of him and the Potters. He had his arms flung around Lily and Al, and a grin too wide for his face. Lily kept hugging him and Al's face kept flashing to look at him.

He missed those days.

* * *

Rose settled down in the chair next to her husband's bed. He was sleeping.

She had to fight to keep the tears at bay. She was so relieved. She'd never known you could feel such a weight lifted off. She felt freer, happier, like everything was going to be alright.

Scorpius turned slightly and opened his eyes to see Rose gazing at him watchfully. He smirked to himself. She hadn't taken her eyes off of him since he'd woken up. He supposed she went home at night, what with the girls so young and all, but she appeared to be there all day. He only knew for sure that she left when one of his parents were there.

Rose noticed him looking. "Hey," she smiled softly.

"Hey," Scorpius attempted to say, but it came out a rasp instead. Rose handed him a glass of water. "Hey," he tried again.

"How are you feeling?" Rose asked. He saw her mentally berating herself for asking that the second after she said it.

"Not bad," he said. He didn't really get a chance to look at her as he didn't want to raise his head too much off of the pillow; he'd found out earlier it created a crick in his neck and drained him of his energy. "Sore, tired." Everything seemed to drain him of energy. Every movement had his muscles screaming in protest and an ache settling itself deep in the marrow of his bones. The healer had assured him it would go away soon, but it still felt a bit worrisome to him.

"Just go back to sleep, then," Rose murmured soothingly. She brushed some stray hair from his eyes.

"Come lay up here with me," he asked. Rose hesitated. She didn't want to hurt him by being too close or accidentally falling asleep on top of him, yet she was desperate to touch him, feel that he was there, with her and safe. His eyes pleaded with her and she surrendered, crawling up onto the bed with Scorpius, making sure to take up as little room as possible.

"I'm going to bring the girls in tomorrow. They're really excited to see you." Rose paused, not sure how to go on. "I didn't tell them about…well…this. I just let them think that you were still on the mission. I didn't want to worry them."

Scorpius attempted to nod but found it was rather hard to do so lying down. He settled for squeezing Rose's hand instead.

"My dad said that he and Uncle Harry are going back to wherever you guys were tomorrow. They're taking James. He signed back on with the aurors."

Scorpius looked interested, but Rose had no more information about it than what she'd just said. Uncle Harry and James hadn't looked too comfortable sharing it in the first place.

"Lily's been staying with me. And Mum and Aunt Ginny. They went back home, though, once Dad and Uncle Harry came back. I think they're just going to stay with each other now," Rose continued. "I'm not sure if Lily is going to continue to stay with us. Do want her to?"

Scorpius made a noncommittal noise and Rose smiled lightly. "She doesn't have to stay with us if you just want it to be the five of us. She's been taking so much time off of work, though, to come and help with the girls so I can sit with you here."

Scorpius rolled over and pulled Rose up close to him. He just waned to feel her. He needed to. He needed to remember why he was an auror. He needed to remember why being injured was alright; it was to protect her and the girls. He did it all for them.

Rose's breath caught as her head leaned against her husband's chest. He'd been so close to…She wasn't going to think about it. She attempted to brush the thought away but it wouldn't budge.

Scorpius started at dampness blossoming on his shirt near Rose's head. He tilted her chin up to see the tears in her eyes which must have leaked over onto the cloth.

"I was so scared," she confessed, burrowing back into him and hugging him tightly. Scorpius's body protested the movement but he held her just as tight and let his chin rest on top of her head. He had been scared, too. The second he'd seen Ophiuchus. And of the nightmares he'd had every night since he'd woken up from the coma, replaying the agonizing pain at the hands of his uncle and his last thoughts of Rose and his daughters, thinking he'd never see them again.

He wanted to hold Rose tight and ravish her like a dying man, all at the same time. He realized how close he'd come to never seeing her or Mia or Cassie or Kate ever again. If they hadn't sort of reconciled before he'd left, he didn't know if he'd ever have been able to get over it. They were all he really had. Sure, he had his parents, but it wasn't the same. It never would be. They had to love him. Rose didn't. And he had her love and his daughters' unconditional love; it was more than he ever deserved and it made it all that much more important.

"Did the healer say anything new before I came back?" Rose sniffled and shifted to look up at him.

Scorpius nodded. "In addition to the potions, I have to do old fashioned muggle physical therapy. My muscle mass deteriorated while I was in a coma, apparently." Scorpius faulted. "I guess potions and magic can only do so much."

Rose rubbed his arm comfortingly before moving her hand to his cheek, stroking it lovingly. She kissed him tenderly and lightly, wishing for more but not willing to increase Scorpius's pain.

"How much longer am I going to be in here?" he asked, his voice cracking. Rose could see the pain straining in his eyes. He hated being confined, much like she did. Hospitals were the worst.

"Soon," Rose murmured. "The healers said you have to be able to walk easily, your muscles no longer aching or sore, and to have the potion medications reduced to eight per day, rather than twelve."

Scorpius groaned. "At this rate it'll be another four months."

"Don't say that," Rose reprimanded him albeit with a kindly tone. "Healer Lottson said he was estimating only another five or so days. Ever since he put you in the heat-tube thing he said you've improved exponentially."

Scorpius's face showed confusion; he still didn't exactly understand what his healing had entailed. He wasn't sure if he completely wanted to. It sounded like Rose and his parents had spent a lot of days next to his unconscious form.

He grasped Rose's hand in his and kissed her lightly again. He felt like he couldn't get enough of her; he felt like he was going to fade from existence and disappear. He needed the tangible, now. He needed to hold the people he cared about, make sure that they were still there with him; he needed to make sure he didn't vanish and was never able to be with them again.

"I love you," he murmured against Rose's lips.

"I love you, too."

_Don't ever leave me, _Scorpius thought. He wasn't sure he could bear it if she did.

* * *

**hope you guys liked it! told you there'd be more drama in this chapter. please review!**


	19. Chapter 18

Rose brought Lily a cup of tea and set it down on the scarred kitchen table in front of her, sitting down across from her cousin and reaching for her own mug. Steam curled out of the top of the cup.

"What's going on, Lils?" she asked without preamble.

She'd come home to find Lily pacing angrily in the living room, the girls sound asleep upstairs.

Lily gripped her mug. Her eyes darted nervously. "I…slept with my boss. Multiple times." She sighed and leaned back in her chair, covering her eyes, possibly to ignore how Rose's jaw had dropped. "I really like him, but…he…he went to school with my dad."

Rose's jaw dropped so low it practically unhinged.

Lily looked back at Rose. She nodded at her cousin's expression, cringing internally. "That's not the worst part. His assistant walked in on us in his office. She threatened to expose us, most likely to the Prophet or some half-bit hag reporter like Rita Skeeter or Romilda Vane. Hopefully that's gone now, though. He had her transferred to Beijing to work in the hotel there."

"Why now?" Rose asked finally, after her voice recovered. "I mean, obviously you've been with him for awhile so how come you're telling me now?"

Lily shook her head and set the mug back down on the table, sloshing some over the side. "That part still wasn't the worst part. This is: I kind of exploded at Vic. And it all came out. And Teddy overheard." She gulped. "He blew up at me tonight while we were at the Burrow with everyone else. No one heard, but…Listen, Rose, you can't ever tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, okay? Not even Scorpius, and especially not Vic."

Lily's urgent voice and pleading eyes had Rose agreeing.

"Remember when Vic and Teddy broke up for about a year and a half? Right before they got married?"

Rose nodded. "I was fifteen, I think. You would've been about thirteen."

Lily shifted in her seat. Rose was beginning to wonder what the guilty look was for. "I…Teddy came over one night when the rest of the family had gone over to your house. I'd been grounded 'cause I threw my charms textbook at James earlier and so I couldn't go."

Rose felt a sinking in her stomach; she had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"Well, Teddy came in and tore through the house, screaming my name. I thought something bad had happened so I ran out and when he saw me, he just ran up and kissed me." Lily looked down at her hands fiddling nervously in her lap.

"You didn't," Rose breathed.

Lily nodded and a few tears escaped her eyes. "Yeah, I did."

Rose felt too stunned to do anything. Somehow she managed to maneuver Lily onto the couch and sat down next to her, pulling the girl into her arms, rocking her back and forth, letting her cry everything out.

_Thirteen, _was all Rose could think. She'd thought fifteen had been bad. But she understood it. It had been early; she knew. Rose understood it all too well. They were the kids of the Golden Trio. Their parents were perfect, so they had to rebel. For most of them, it included drinking and what would generally be termed 'scandalous' behavior.

But for both of them, it had been with people they trusted completely, absolutely. Teddy and Lily. _Teddy and Lily._ It was mind boggling. Practically inconceivable. But made complete sense at the same time.

They rebelled in predictable ways. But nothing too noticeable. Nothing exceptionally obvious, like dyed hair or a lip piercing. Though, Rose had had a belly button piercing (she'd taken it out when she'd really begun to show when pregnant with Mia) and Lily did have that tattoo. But whatever they did, it wasn't visible if they wanted to hide it.

Lily must be even better than Rose at hiding things if she'd hidden her tryst with Teddy for so long.

Rose stroked Lily's hair and pulled her into her lap. "It's alright, honey, it's alright," she comforted.

"No, it's not," Lily sat up and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Today, Teddy was screaming and yelling and I told him to stop acting like my brother because I already have two and said that I didn't realize incest was his thing since he took my virginity," Lily let out a sob and Rose wrapped her arms around her again.

"Why didn't you say anything before?"

"I thought you'd think terribly of me for it. I mean, come on, I was _thirteen._ Teddy was twenty-three. Ten _years._ Not to mention if my dad ever found out. He'd be so disappointed in me. He'd probably skin Teddy alive, too. I don't think he'd ever be able to look at either of us again. And what about Vic? Sure, they weren't together. But still…how would you feel if one of us had slept with Scorpius? It's basically the same thing."

Lily wiped her face with her hands furiously again and stared beseechingly up at Rose.

"What about your boss? Is he worth all this trouble?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Lily responded vehemently. "He absolutely is."

Rose almost smiled. "You really like him, don't you?"

"A little too much," Lily gave a watery giggle.

"Who is it?"

"Seamus Finnigan."

* * *

"So, this is where you've been?" James dumped his rucksack next to a seat at the kitchen table before flopping down onto it and taking in the dingy little house.

Harry nodded and sat down across from his son. Ron took the seat next to James's.

"Kirkwall."

"You remember everything we told you?" Ron asked.

James gave his uncle a dry look. They'd briefed him last night. Then he'd spent the night talking and laughing with Callie, the sheets pulled up over their heads like a tent. He'd remembered the good-byes being bad; but that had been before she'd gotten pregnant, before they'd gotten married, before they'd even gotten together. Earlier that morning, the good-byes had become terrible.

"I remember," he answered.

"Good," Harry leaned forward in his chair, his eyes like steel. "Then we're going out, tonight, and we're going to catch the bastard."

* * *

Ginny dumped a pile of clean laundry onto the couch and let out an irritated huff.

Hermione raised her eyes from her book and lifted her eyebrow. "Something the matter?"

Ginny appeared not to hear her. She sorted the laundry furiously, muttering under her breath.

Hermione caught a few words: "Lily…weird…quiet…not coming 'round for dinner…Harry's gone…should I…"

"What?" Ginny shouted, turning on Hermione after she'd said her name for the third time.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"What kind of garbage is that?"

Hermione waved her hand. "Some Muggle Yankee saying. It basically means 'what's on your mind'?"

"Oh," Ginny stopped and sank down onto the couch next to her sister-in-law. "I mean, Harry's gone and that's always worrisome, you know, of course, but now James is gone with him, like he used to be. And Lily's been acting a bit odd, lately. She's not coming round for dinner and so it's just been Teddy and me, since Al always seems to have Quidditch or he's out with Jessie." Ginny exhaled her breath in a big puff and lay down across Hermione. "What has happened to my children?"

Hermione chuckled. "I know what you mean. I haven't seen Rose in quite awhile, it feels like. Though it's understandable, since she spends all of her time at the hospital with Scorpius. And the last time I saw Hugo was at the Burrow a few days ago, but I hadn't seen him for weeks before that. He's off traveling the world with a bunch of his friends. Apparently he's doing some culinary troupe thing. He's going to become a chef." A note of pride was visible in Hermione's voice.

"I bet Bill is feeling the same. When was the last time anyone's heard from Louis? Dominique's been in full-blown stress overload, along with Lucy, because of the wedding plans and I doubt that fiancé of hers, Tom what's-his-face, has been any help."

Hermione snorted. "Ron certainly wasn't."

"Victoire's always been good about going home and visiting everyone but I think it's just an ingrained oldest grandchild sense of responsibility kind of thing," Ginny continued. "Roxanne's too busy with her clothing shop to do much of anything else. George is getting worried about her; apparently he heard Molly saying to Fred that Roxanne had turned down going out the other night. I swear, this family gossips more than Rita Skeeter."

"At least we have accurate information," Hermione pointed out. "But now that you mention it, I definitely haven't seen all of the kids together for weeks."

Ginny's teeth nibbled nervously on her nails. "I'm really worried about Lily," she confessed. "She's been rejecting every letter I've sent inviting her for dinner. For about two weeks, now. Admittedly, I've sent one just about everyday since she rejected two in a row," Ginny chuckled at her pathetic actions, "but she usually comes over two or three times a week. Often when I don't ask."

Ginny turned to look at Hermione better. "You don't think it has anything to do with one of the boys, do you? Maybe she got in a fight with one of them?"

Hermione pondered it for a moment. "James and Harry are away, so no to both of them. Besides, Harry would've told you if something had happened between them. Al has been away too much and Rose mentioned in her last letter that they all went to his last Quidditch game with Teddy and Vic and the kids." Hermione paused. "You don't think…Lily and Teddy got in a fight?" she asked, voice laced with hesitation.

Ginny pulled on her lip with her teeth, her forehead screwing up with concentration. "They've always fought with each other," she admitted. A chuckle escaped her mouth. "I remember when Lily was five and yelling at a fifteen-year-old Teddy, in front of the first girl he brought over, for not being the princess so she could be the dragon."

Hermione opened her mouth to speak then stopped.

"What?" Ginny urged.

"I think there was about a year or two, where I just remember seeing them shoot daggers at each other with their eyes every time we were all at the Burrow. Hugo was about thirteen or fourteen, so she would've been the same age."

"I remember that," Ginny's eyes widened. "She refused to say anything and every time Teddy came over she was spitting fire. Oh my God," Ginny breathed. "You don't think…something happened between them? Not like a fight, I mean like a Scorpius-and-Rose-seventh-year happened between them?"

Ginny felt her breathing picking up, practically hyperventilating. It wasn't a good thought to think that your daughter did anything in a romantic sort with someone ten years older, especially when said daughter had only been about thirteen.

Hermione's expression smoothed over. It always did that when she felt like she knew something she shouldn't say to anyone else.

Ginny knew the look all too well. "Oh, God," she moaned. She put her head in her hands. It felt like a weak action, portraying the weakness she felt inside of her, but she couldn't help it. On some level, she didn't want Hermione to see her realizing that her children had been up to just as much as she, if not more on some levels and certainly less on others, when they were teenagers.

But even if it had happened, and Ginny reminded herself that she didn't know it had, why would it make Teddy and Lily upset at each other now?

"That was so many years ago, though," Ginny said. "It wouldn't make them in a strop now, unless something happened recently. But not only would they never do that to Victoire, they obviously don't feel anything romantic-like towards each other. What would make them angry at each other now?"

"I would be inclined to think," Hermione began slowly, "that Lily is probably doing something Teddy doesn't approve of, and won't listen to Teddy on whatever it is. That's probably all it was when they were in a strop all those years ago, too."

"You're probably right," Ginny nodded. The relief was immensely gratifying and she breathed out. "That's all that it is, nothing else. I was just being silly." Ginny shook the earlier thought out of her head and smiled. She was just being ridiculous. Neither Teddy nor Lily would do something like that. She was just watching too many soap operas, looking for the dramatic and secrecy where there was none. "She's never wanted to take anyone's advice, anyways, unless it was Rose's. She wouldn't even take Vic's." Ginny smiled at Hermione. "It's so nice that she and Rose are so close."

Hermione sighed. "I wish they'd confide in us like they confide in each other, you know?"

Ginny nodded. "Like when they were younger and they'd run up to us with dandelions they'd picked in the yard, bouquets for each of us."

Hermione shuffled over closer to Ginny and put an arm around her. "When did our kids grow up?"

Ginny shook her head. "Way too fast for my liking," she grinned. "I'm still seeing James running around naked with jam all over his face screaming about how the gremlins were after him."

Hermione scoffed. "Don't be silly. There's no such thing as gremlins."

Ginny's eyes twinkled. "Just like there's no such thing as witches and wizards?"

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I hadn't had Ginny or Hermione in the story for awhile, so I put them in there. Plus, I feel like I portrayed the whole family as being pretty close (at least the Harry / Ginny & Hermione / Ron sides) in the prequel, as well as earlier in here, that they would know when something's up with their kids.**

**Also, someone reviewed on the last chapter, confused about the incest reference. Here's the explanation: If Teddy feels like Lily's brother, then metaphorically, he is. That way, if they sleep together, then it's _like _incest. It's not technically incest, more Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge incest, if that makes any sense. Biologically - no. Hope that helps.**

**Review, please!**


	20. Chapter 19

**Sorry I've taken so long in updating! Parts of the site were down and it wouldn't let me connect to update.**

* * *

Lily knocked on the door of the little house in Belfast. She never understood how he traveled so far to work each day. She supposed it was his Irish heritage. He had to be with his land; an O'Hara for his Tara.

The door opened roughly and instead of Seamus standing there, it was Callie's ex-fiancé, Ryan. Seamus's son.

"Lily?" he asked, his face incredulous. No one in the family really spoke to him after what he'd done to Callie. Of course, everyone in their family had been rooting for James through that whole ordeal, so that added to their hatred of him, too.

"Oh, hi, Ryan," she stumbled. _Come on, Lily, you lie brilliantly, let's hear it now_. "I was looking for your dad," she held up some manilla file folders, "I've got some work stuff he needs to look at." She gave an apologetic smile, hiding her incredibly fast heart beat.

All she needed was for Ryan to catch on and blurt it to the media. Knowing him, he was probably still smarting over the fact that James had ended up with Callie, not he. Lily had always wondered how such a great and wonderful man had ended up with such a terrible son.

"Oh, sure," Ryan ruffled his hair and stepped away from the door, welcoming her inside.

Lily stepped in and waited in the entryway as Ryan got Seamus. She fiddled nervously with the straps of her purse. Why, oh why, did he have to be here?

Seamus appeared down the hall and walked up to her, his gait lilting as always with a little jolly step in it. Lily bit on the inside of her mouth to refrain from smiling.

"Alright, Da, I'm goin' ta go, now," Ryan grabbed his coat, nodded at Lily, and left the house.

"He has terrible timin', don't he?" Seamus grinned and pulled Lily into a tight embrace, kissing her hard on the mouth.

Lily grinned back up at him. It was contagious. His happiness, his optimism, she felt alive and free when she was with him.

"He always has," she agreed. "I really do have business stuff, though," she added regretfully and shook the manilla folders again. "Mr. Wilson got upset again."

Seamus groaned and shook his head, closing his eyes. "We've got to stop lettin' him stay at the hotels. I'm at me wits end dealin' with him an' his threats o' lawsuits."

Lily smiled. "That's why you have me," she kissed his cheek and stepped away, trotting off down the hall to the kitchen, kicking off her heels as she went.

She didn't see Seamus standing behind her, smiling at her retreating self, wondering how he ever got so lucky.

Lily settled down on a stool at the kitchen counter, leaning over the folders.

Seamus poured a cup of coffee and set it down in front of her. "So, ya just came by fer work? No other reason?" He waggled his eyebrows.

Lily sighed and rubbed her temples. "Actually, we need to talk about something."

The smile slid off Seamus's face. "What's wrong, love?"

"Rose knows. About us," she clarified. "She's happy for us, though." Lily looked up to see confusion etched across her boss's face. "But…Teddy and Victoire know enough. I don't think they know you're my boss, though. But they seem to know everything else."

Seamus cleared his throat and settled down next to her. "Maybe, ya know, it's time we tell 'em. Get it out in the open."

Lily looked up at him. "You want to?"

Seamus nodded slowly. "I'm serious about this, Lils, about us. It's not as if we're the strangest couple in the world, right? They love ya. They'll accept it, us."

Lily's forehead creased. "Are you sure? I don't want to disappoint-"

"Ya're dad?" Seamus guessed.

Lily nodded.

"If he loves ya, which he does, then he'll accept it. Ya're his daughter."

"How about I break it to my mum, first?"

"Alright," Seamus nodded and brushed a curl of fiery hair away from Lily's face. He let his lips linger across her temple before coming back to her lips.

He was going to make sure this worked, by God, he was. He wasn't going to let the woman he loved escape, especially since he was pretty damn sure she loved him back.

* * *

"Hey, Mum?" Lily asked. "Can I talk to you?"

Ginny set her book down and shuffled over, giving Lily some more room on the couch. "Would this have anything to do with why you've been refusing to come over for dinner recently?"

Lily nodded. She settled down next to her mum on the couch. "I got into a fight with Teddy. He doesn't exactly…approve…of who I've been seeing."

"Oh," Ginny said. She'd felt the bear of overprotective brothers herself due to her relationships. Then she realized something kind of important. "Any reason why he knows who you're seeing and I don't? And if he's in such a tiff about it, then it must be serious." Ginny's eyes narrowed. "Who is it?"

Lily's eyes strayed to her hands, fiddling in her lap. "My boss," she admitted meekly. "Remember Ryan? Callie's ex-fiancé?"

Ginny nodded, pleading in her head. _Don't be Ryan, don't be Ryan…_

"It's his dad. Seamus Finnigan."

"Holy shit," escaped Ginny's mouth.

* * *

"Come on, Rose, the healer said I could go home yesterday," Scorpius practically whined.

Rose plumped up the pillows behind her husband's bed. "I know, Scorp. I talked to the healer. I'm taking you home today."

Rose chuckled at the uncontained happiness on Scorpius's face.

"The girls are there, right? Because, I swear, if I have to go any longer without seeing them, I'm going to die."

"Do not joke about that," Rose said harshly. "And you saw them yesterday," she added.

"I miss them so much," Scorpius admitted. "They have school and Lily all day, and I have you, but we don't have them together and they don't have us. I just want to sit at home and watch awfully cheesy movies all day, spill popcorn on the couch, have them fall asleep on me when we stay up past bedtime." Scorpius sighed wistfully.

Rose brushed Scorpius's hair back. "You're going to see them today. Tomorrow is Saturday, so no school for Mia and no preschool for Cassie, and we can all lounge around on the couch all day watching those cheesy movies and spilling popcorn."

"Rose?" Healer Lottson appeared in the doorway. "Could I see you for a moment? Scorpius needs to take a nap before he goes home and I need to review the at-home treatment you'll have to do for him before he leaves."

Rose nodded. "Of course." She kissed Scorpius gently on the cheek before following Healer Lottson to his office.

"Please, take a seat," the healer offered. Rose sat down in front of the healer's desk, across from him. "We just have to go over a few things. You know the drill about the eight potions: twice a day, once at breakfast and again at dinner. What we need to go over, are the psychological issues of the experience." At Rose's surprised face he nodded gravely. "People who are injured or hurt as severely as your husband often have psychological damage as well. During the day, while you are here, he appears to be happy and content, albeit restless by being cooped up in the hospital. When you go home at night he paces and has even thrown things at the nurses and healers when they come in. He'll most likely be more overprotective of you and your daughters, probably appear a bit more controlling, as well."

Rose felt stunned. No one had said anything about Scorpius acting like that.

"It's because he's come so close to losing everything he has, so he'll want to protect it even more so than usual," Healer Lottson continued to explain, oblivious to Rose's distress. "Just watch out for that behavior. It'll stop after awhile but he could get aggressive. It's happened before." The healer snapped all of his files together and looked back up at Rose. "I think that's it. If you have any questions, you know where to find me."

Rose nodded.

She remembered leaving the room, but not all too much after that. It was all a little hazy.

Psychological damage? Post-traumatic stress? What did the healer think was wrong with her husband?

Rose sank into one of the chairs in the waiting area.

Scorpius just got better. Or at least, he'd just woken up out of his coma and out of immediate life-threatening danger. Why couldn't he just stay healthy?

Had all of this really been happening? Had his mood been changing at night, when she and Astoria and Draco were all gone? Had he really become angry and violent?

Rose shuddered. She could remember how when he was younger he'd been violent. One particular fight stood out in her mind. She'd said he was no better than his death eater father. She'd ended up flung into a side table in the heads dormitory. Rose could almost feel the impact and bruising she'd had for weeks after.

He'd been angry, when he was younger, too. But that didn't necessarily mean he was becoming violent or angry again.

Maybe it was just as Healer Lottson had said and it was just an effect of the accident. It probably wasn't a permanent behavioral change.

She was probably just being stupid. After all, she was becoming a worrywart, now, ever since Scorpius was hurt. The healer just said that if often happened, not that it always did. Maybe it wouldn't happen to Scorpius.

* * *

**Review, please!**


	21. Chapter 20

**Hi guys! This is more of a filler chapter, sort of. Only another chapter or so and then I'll be getting back more into Scorpius and Rose, or I can nicely tie it all up and end it. Let me know what you think!**

* * *

James crouched low beside his dad, both of them behind a flutterby bush in front of the house in Kirkwall.

"Come on, come on," he murmured. They had gathered all of the evidence they needed to arrest the man responsible for so many deaths. Now, they just had to physically get their hands on Ophiuchus. James didn't want to just get his hands on him, he wanted to throttle him.

A menacing creek escaped the front door of the house: the hinges. Beside James, Harry tensed as the door opened.

A man about Harry's age stepped out from the door. James gasped.

The man had white-blond hair, the only kind ever seen on the head of a Malfoy. His eyes were cool, calculating, and the gray of the sky above a stormy sea. His face was a mask, leaving no possible way to penetrate it.

But the tell-tale sign was the wand the man was holding. It had been missing from the crime scene. It was Lucius Malfoy's wand.

This man was Ophiuchus.

Harry signaled Ron and Greg, hiding in the bush across the walkway.

James began to count down. _Three, two, one…_

"Stupefy!" came the roar of four voices.

In a lightning flash of red, Ophiuchus was on the ground.

"_Incarcerous_," James growled, pointing his wand at the unconscious man, watching satisfyingly as the bonds wrapped around him too tight. There wasn't enough he could do, to make this man pay.

* * *

It was almost Christmas, Ginny realized. Soon the entire family would all show up at the Burrow for dinner; they'd finally be together.

Molly would cook too much and the table would groan and bend under the weight of it. Rose would probably start a food fight with the kids. Hermione and Ron would disappear midway through, acting like randy teenagers. Bill would sink down into the sofa after eating and take a nap, somehow managing to sleep through the chaos reigning around the rest of the house. Harry, James, and Ron would be back (hopefully) from the mission so everyone would be continually looking around for them to make sure that they were safe. Rose would hover over Scorpius. Percy would lecture. It would be chaotic, hectic, and home.

But Lily wouldn't be happy. She'd see James being overprotective and loving towards Callie, making sure she was comfortable every second; he'd been like that since she'd gotten pregnant. And she'd see Al laughing with Jessie, brushing her curls away from her face.

And she wouldn't be with Seamus.

Ginny groaned and sank down into a kitchen chair. She rubbed her temples. Her daughter was with a man twenty seven years older. For goodness sakes, he was fifty-one to her twenty-four.

That conversation had not gone well, Ginny reflected. Lily had dropped the bomb and she'd just stared, after blurting 'holy shit', which had not been a good tidbit to start with when she was trying to make her daughter think she accepted this.

She couldn't have helped her reaction, though. All she could think of the Irishman with his hands all over her daughter. Her baby. It felt _wrong._ But…if Lily was happy with him, and he with her, then it should be right. Hell, it had looked like Lily was in love with him!

And who was she to say Lily couldn't love someone? It was love, right? It just happened. They couldn't control it. Like Dean Thomas and Pansy Parkinson; who would have ever guessed? Luna, after all, was with a man ten years older, and Ginny had been only excited for her when they'd gotten married.

It was what Harry, James, and Al would do that really worried Ginny. Harry wouldn't believe it, then would get into a fiery rage, and then would slump. James would just be angry and overprotective. He wouldn't know how to frighten his sister's boyfriend when said boyfriend was about twenty years older than him. Al would have his own opinion, but would keep it to himself until he could get Lily alone to talk to her. And that would most likely develop into a fight.

What if it all blew up over Christmas dinner? Molly was always asking if her grandchildren had any sort of relationship going on. Lily had never been a good liar when asked direct questions; otherwise, she'd done well. But now that both James and Al had someone, Molly was definitely going to put all of her effort into focusing on Lily out of the rest of the Potters.

Ginny sighed. She flicked off the lights in the house before heading upstairs. This was something she'd talk to Harry about, she reflected as she crawled into bed.

Harry, once past the fact that his baby girl had a boyfriend (and one so much older) would be a voice of reason.

Ginny flopped around in the bed, never getting comfortable. She missed the feeling of Harry's arm curled around her while they were falling asleep, whispering funny things in her ear or about the events that had happened that day, what was going to happen the next day.

She scooted over to Harry's pillow and inhaled. God, she missed him. She felt like she should be used to this after all these years; but she never would.

It was an ache. It pulled at her insides when he was gone. She imagined Hermione and Rose felt the same when Ron and Scorpius were gone.

It had almost been easier when the kids were younger and living in the house. Sure, it had been more work and very worrisome, the kids would often cry and yell, wake up in the middle of the night after a nightmare and ask for Daddy to make it better. But now, the house was empty, and there was no one to distract her from the fact that she was all alone.

All alone with her thoughts; not something she wanted to be left alone with right now.

Not when they were so focused on someone who had now slept with both she and her daughter.

There were no loose strings there, though, Ginny knew. She and Seamus had used each other, knowingly, and had never regretted it. It had meant only comfort during that terrible year at Hogwarts, for both she and Seamus; someone to care about them after they were tortured and hurt by the Carrows. Though what adulterous lovers often termed 'nothing' wasn't nothing, this had been. Nothing, that is. It didn't mean anything filled with love for either of them.

They both knew the other wished they were holding someone else. Ginny was wishing for Harry; Seamus for his girl back in Ireland. Apparently, he'd gotten over the girl.

Apparently, he loved Lily, now.

* * *

"Rose, if you look at me again, I'm going to throw something," Scorpius growled from the couch.

Rose rolled her eyes. She didn't both to respond. Scorpius had been making these threats since he got home. Apparently, it was alright for him to watch her every move, but as soon as she attempted to do the same, watching for any signs of his health not being up to one-hundred percent, he got angry. It was alright for him to hover, but not for her.

"Is Kate still sleeping?" he grumbled and shifted on the couch.

"Yes," Rose said. "I have to pick up Mia and Cassie in about half an hour," she reminded him.

"You'll be back soon?"

"Yes," Rose said through clenched teeth. Healer Lottson had been right: her husband the git had turned into her husband the surly, overprotective git. "Lily's coming by for dinner tonight. Is your abdomen feeling any better? I need to change the bandages soon."

"Not better enough to get me back on the mission." Scorpius scowled. He looked so much like his father in that moment that Rose had to look twice to make sure Draco Malfoy wasn't sitting on her couch.

Rose moved to kneel beside the couch to look directly into Scorpius's eyes. "You are not useless. Stop acting like it. You're getting better. This injury is not permanent. You'll be alright," she added tenderly at the end.

Scorpius's eyes drooped as they widened. "How do you know?" he asked in a small whisper, admitting he wasn't feeling as invincible as he was trying to appear.

"Because you're you. You're Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. You could conquer the world if you set your mind to it and overcoming this temporary setback should be no problem for you." Rose smiled and kissed Scorpius lightly.

"Love you," he murmured and sighed, kissed her again, then fell back against the pillows on the couch with a loud groan. "Fucking healer didn't clear me for anything past a 'little kiss', he said."

Rose laughed. It was a good sound to hear after so long. She ruffled Scorpius's hair into further disarray, a mess that reminded her of Al's and Uncle Harry's hair. Luckily for James, he'd inherited the color but not the craziness, though he'd always enjoyed ruffling it in front of Callie when they were younger.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" she giggled.

Scorpius gave her a dry look.

Rose leaned down low in front of Scorpius. She saw his Adam's apple bob as he gulped, staring straight down her shirt. "Sucker," she whispered with a grin.

"Stop teasing me," Scorpius growled, attempting unsuccessfully to hold back a smile.

"The day I stop teasing you will be a very sorry day all around," Rose flounced back to the kitchen, making sure to wiggle her hips a little extra. She heard Scorpius groan: mission complete.


	22. Chapter 21

Ophiuchus was slammed down into the rickety wooden chair. James released a low, feral growl. Harry gave him a warning look. Ron ignored it. Scorpius continued to slump against the wall, seemingly unaffected, while intentionally not letting the enemy know he was still injured. Not like he'd ever admit it to himself, either.

Scorpius didn't want to interrogate his uncle; he wanted to beat the man to a pulp. He wanted to use the same curse the excuse of a man had used on him. His hands were itching to wrap around the man's neck.

Scorpius had almost lost his _life _because of this man. He'd almost lost everything dear to him. Rose, the girls, his family, _everything._ It wasn't enough for this man to rot in Azkaban for the rest of his days. This man had caused the mourning, grief-filled, distraught look on his father's face since Lucius had been killed, Narcissa and Astoria threatened.

"Ophiuchus Abraxas Malfoy," Harry began, ignoring the snarling coming from Scorpius upon hearing his grandfather had allowed the bastard to share the family name, "you promise to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"What is this, an episode of Law and Order?" Ophiuchus asked, the words less biting because of his voice.

Scorpius tried to stop it, but he couldn't help it. Ron was barely contained. James carefully avoided anyone's gaze for fear of breaking his concentration. Harry just stared.

Scorpius caught Ron's eye, and all was lost.

They broke out into guffawing, braying, incredible laughter.

The man must've been a eunuch; only that could explain his ear-straining high voice. Or he was Owen Meany.

* * *

"What's going on, Gin?" Harry asked. He was being dragged into the bathroom in the very back of the house, the one no one used.

Ginny glanced suspiciously around her before closing the door and casting about eight silencing charms.

"Really, Gin?" Harry raised his eyebrows, smirking. "Have something to tell me?"

"You're not going to laugh once I'm finished telling you," Ginny threatened.

Having been married to Ginny for so long, Harry sobered up. He knew something was coming.

Ginny sat on top of the sink counter as Harry settled on the edge of the bathtub. "So, you going to explain, or what?"

"Lily has a boyfriend." She blurted it out quick; like ripping off a band-aid.

Harry's face began with surprised, quickly escalated to the overprotective father, then settled somewhere in between being happy for his daughter and missing the baby she used to be. Ginny wanted to laugh at how predictable his reaction had been. Of course, the worst was yet to come.

"Oh, who? Is he nice? She hasn't mentioned anything." Harry was clearly trying to retain control of his emotions.

"Well, considering the fact that you've been gone for months now would probably explain why she hasn't mentioned anything," Ginny replied somewhat irritably. He could be so dense sometimes.

Harry grumbled and shifted. "So who is he?"

"You're not going to like it," Ginny said. It was why she'd refrained from mentioning it for a few days, now. All through the usual welcome home, she hadn't wanted to mix it up the euphoric (and erotic, she reminded herself and refrained from giggling like a sixteen-year-old Lavender Brown) feelings.

"Just tell me already!" He'd always hated it when she'd drawn things out. Harry had never liked being on the outside of something.

"He went to school with you," she said in a rush, "was in our house."

She watched as her husband's eyes widened. Then did the math. Neville was married to Hannah. Dean to Pansy. Ron, obviously not. That left only one. "Seamus?" His voice was hoarse.

Ginny nodded. "I think she loves him," she admitted. "And she wouldn't let herself love him if she weren't positive he loves her."

Harry grumbled nonsensically. A furious monster fought within him: protect his daughter, or let her be happy?

Ginny jumped off of the counter. She sat next to Harry on the edge of the tub. Running a hand through his hair she muttered, "It's her life. If he makes her happy, who are we to say no? We don't have that power, Harry. She's not a little girl, anymore."

* * *

"Jesus Christ, Da! What're ya doin', messin' around with a girl youn'er than I am?" Ryan shouted at his father.

Seamus's face was steadily grower redder and redder. "This ain't none o' yer business," he growled. "Ya can't tell me who to love, so don't be an arse o'er somethin' ya can't change."

Ryan blanched. "Ya love her?"

"Yeah," Seamus whispered. "Yeah, I do. An' I'm goin' to marry her one day."

The pained face Ryan made reminded Seamus all too well of himself. He was prone to expressing every emotion he felt, without regard for the consequences or thinking before acting. Apparently, it was a trait he'd passed on to his son.

"I hope yeh'll be better at marriage this time around, then," Ryan spat bitterly. Seamus knew Ryan had never really forgiven him, or his mother, for their divorce years and years earlier, but that didn't make the bite at him hurt any less. He and Sophie hadn't had a bitter divorce, nor a very bitter marriage. It just hadn't worked. They'd learned when Ryan was about three, Liam about five, that they just didn't love each other. The fact that he'd failed at something so vital to the rest of humanity hurt, though.

The sound of Ryan slamming the door hurtled through to penetrate Seamus's brain. His head was in his hands as he leaned on the kitchen counter when Lily came in.

"What's wrong?" she immediately asked, dropping her purse into one of the seats and sitting next to him, letting her hand rub his shoulder.

Seamus's skin tingled where her hand rested on him. He wasn't young; was he supposed to be feeling the tingling, the flame, the love he felt for Lily? He wasn't sure, but he didn't want it to go away. Ever. He was sure of that, at least. More sure than he'd ever been in his life about anything else. He loved Lily. God in Heaven, he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life.

He felt the tension slowly ease out of his shoulders. He was going to ask her to marry him. Soon. Whenever the moment presented itself; after all, he'd been carrying around the ring for weeks, now.

Seamus straightened and sighed a bit, smiling at Lily. "I'm fine. I just…told Ryan." He shrugged but Lily saw through the façade.

She smiled grimly. "My family didn't take it any better, either. My mum's first words in response were, 'Holy shit'. I still haven't spoken to my dad or brothers. But she knows, so they all will soon." Lily gave a real smile. "We don't have to hide, anymore."

Seamus shook his head, matching her smile for his own, and pulled her into his arms. "God, I've missed ya."

Lily giggled. "I've been gone for a _day_."

Seamus grinned and kissed her hard. "Yeah, well, it felt like a year. How's that for honesty, hm?"

"You're always honest," she laughed.

Seamus was unabashed. It was true. It was how he'd gotten Lily to be with him in the first place. He'd just told her he liked her. Without remorse, regret, or any bashfulness. Straightforward. It worked.

He just shrugged. But there were things they needed to talk about, so he moved along. "Liam was happy for me," he said. "Ryan, not so much."

Lily bit her lip. "I think he's still upset with my family. James, in particular."

"It would make sense," Seamus admitted. He hated thinking of what his son used to be. He wasn't that man, anymore. Ryan had gotten help. He'd fixed the problem. He was a better man, now, and no one really gave him credit for it.

"Doesn't mean he hasn't changed," Lily smoothed the hair just over Seamus's forehead with a knowing smile. "I'm willing to accept and get to know him, whether or not he's willing to do the same for me."

"Liam wants us to have dinner with him. Is it just me, or is this weird? Instead of bringing the girl home to meet the parents, I'm bringing her home to meet me sons?"

Lily laughed. "You still get to do the ritual with my family. Just, you know, you've already met them. You've known them most of your life. Longer than I have, actually."

Seamus cleared his throat. "Yeh're not making me feel any better about this."

"Oh, Shay, are you nervous?" Lily teased.

"I'm goin' to dinner at yer house, with yer family, and if ya leave me alone, they'll castrate me. O' course I'm nervous!"

Lily scoffed. "They won't _castrate_ you, Shay. My mum will try to make conversation, my dad will be really awkward, and my brothers will just stare at you. But James might try to be obnoxious. He's really good at it in an overprotective, older brother sort of way," Lily smiled. "You'll be fine."

"God, I hope yer right about that. It'd be humiliatin' if yer brothers did end up killin' me. They're o'er twenty years younger and don't 'ave nearly as much fightin' experience as me." Seamus chuckled but Lily laughed at him.

"They might not have as much fighting experience as you, but they've got plenty."

Seamus brushed his hands over a piece of Lily's hair and tucked it behind her ear. He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. He loved to play with her hair. It was soft and she loved the feel of his hands running through it, as well.

"God, Lily, I love you so much," he smiled at her.

"I love you, too, Shay," she smiled at him. She was used to him just saying those words whenever he wanted to; he said whatever he felt. It had led to a lot of fights and a lot of happiness in their relationship. Lily wouldn't have had it any other way, either.

Seamus froze. He knew what he was going to do to propose to Lily. And it was going to be brilliant. His honest, unabashed, straightforward – self wouldn't allow anything to go differently. Straightforward was his specialty, as was Lily.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	23. Chapter 22

Rose picked up Kate and grabbed Cassie's hand. Scorpius had Mia on his back.

"Time to go to Nana's!" Cassie kicked her legs up and pulled Rose almost down to the ground.

"Okay, there," Scorpius grabbed her other hand to relieve Rose from Cassie's full weight.

Rose glared at him. Scorpius rolled his eyes. He could hold Mia and a little bit of Cassie. The doctor might not have completely cleared him but he was feeling a lot better.

Rose rolled her eyes, too, having got the message. She kissed his cheek and they stepped outside. "Let's go!"

* * *

Ginny and Harry nervously sat on the couch near the tree, all decorated with the paper chains, ornaments, and even the petrified garden gnome at the top. Lily had said she was bringing Seamus to Christmas Eve and they were both staying for all of Christmas Day, too, just like everyone else in the family.

They still hadn't told James or Al. They hadn't dared. Of course, they were almost sentencing Lily and Seamus to extreme pain, but Harry wasn't sure he could say it out loud.

Almost all of the family was here, now. Lily had come in with them, so Seamus was coming in separately.

She was sitting over with Rose and Kate, eagerly talking, laughing, smiling, and looking over at the door every few minutes.

Harry couldn't take his eyes off her.

When had she grown up? When had she started to believe in love outside of Prince Charming saving Cinderella? When had she stopped being his little girl?

It was like a little tear in his heart which pulled and ached fiercely each time she smiled, happy without him. She could be happy without her daddy taking care of her, making her favorite sandwiches, watching all of her favorite movies with her, swinging her around in the air, giving piggyback rides. When had this happened?

Harry tightened his grip on the bottle of muggle beer in his hand as the doorbell rang. Oh, shit, here he was. No one in the family rang the doorbell. It'd be why every Weasley and Potter stood up and walked towards the door, the older generation still cautious with their wands outstretched. Lily and Rose at the front, eagerly waiting.

Molly answered and there stood Seamus. "Oh, Seamus, how are you?" she cried, pulling him in for a tight hug. The wands dropped.

He patted Molly's back and smiled. "S'Good to see ya too, Mrs. Weasley, how're ya?"

"Oh, fine," she smiled and pulled him into the midst of the family. "Ron, Harry, you didn't tell me Seamus was coming."

"I didn't invite him," Ron said, "no offense, mate," he added, looking at Seamus.

"None taken," Seamus said.

"Harry, then?" Molly turned to him.

Harry just shook his head and took a large gulp of the beer. Ginny elbowed him in the ribs and he almost spluttered the drink everywhere.

"Actually," Lily said and stepped up to Seamus, wrapping her arm through his, "everyone, this is my boyfriend."

Harry saw Seamus's smile falter when his gaze landed on James and Al.

"Well, isn't that lovely!" Hermione said, breaking the tense silence and coming up and giving Seamus a kiss on the cheek and escorting him into the kitchen. Most of the family followed Hermione's example and went in to eat, as well.

Harry stayed, and so did James and Lily.

She was gazing imploringly at her older brother, and his cold look of shock was glaring back.

Lily's eyes began to fill with tears as James refused to acknowledge her. "James," she begged.

James shook his head and walked into the dining room, leaving Lily behind.

Lily's tears crested over her eyelids and began pouring down her face. She wiped furiously at them and escaped the house through the door which Seamus had come in.

Harry grabbed his jacket and his daughter's, and followed her out into the snow.

He found her on the same swing he'd found Rose on, so long ago.

He walked around behind her and began to push her on the swing.

Lily instantly relaxed the second she felt her dad's hands push her on the swing. God, she missed this. She missed feeling like a little girl, free to do as she wished. Being a grown up stunk sometimes. Every decision wasn't the most important in the world, but the consequences were. And now James didn't even want to talk to her.

Eventually, Harry grabbed the swing and pulled Lily to a stop.

He sat down on the swing next to her. They both idly moved their feet in the snow beneath, swinging side to side.

Harry waited for Lily to speak first. She didn't let him down.

"I thought he'd be happy for me," she said, her voice raspy with tears. "He was supposed to be happy. I was happy for him and Callie. I helped him get over his pride and admit to her he loved her in the first place. Why couldn't he be happy for me?"

Harry knew it was rhetorical, but he answered anyways. "He's your older brother, Lils. He's James. He's always protected you, made sure you were safe, intimidated your dates. This time he didn't; he didn't even know you had a boyfriend. And bringing him to the Burrow for Christmas? It's obviously serious. He's just stunned by who it is, Lily."

"It's not like you're okay with this, either, Dad! Please, I saw your face. You're just as upset about it as he is."

Harry sighed and ran a hand over his face. "No, I'm not Lils. I'm just surprised. I still think of you as my baby girl and it's hard to realize that you're not so little anymore." Harry paused. "It's just going to take everyone a little time to get used to it."

"Why do you have to get used to it?" cried Lily, standing up in front of her dad, away from the swing. "If it were anyone else, would you have to? If it were anyone else, would everyone be so stunned and upset? No, they wouldn't. Because you're all just a bunch of hypocrites."

Lily started to storm off but Harry caught up to her. "Now wait just a second, Lily Luna Potter. You don't tell anyone you're dating him until you're practically engaged and you want us to just be okay with it?

"It's not the fact that you're dating _him_, Lily. It's the fact that you didn't feel like you trusted any of us enough to tell us you were dating him. Sure, the fact that he is so much older than you is a bit of a puzzle, or the fact that he's your boss from what Teddy tells me, but that's not the main thing here."

"You're doing a really bad job at comforting me, Dad," Lily scowled. The tear tracks on her face glistened against her freckles in the snowy moonlight. Harry had an urge to make all the tears disappear, slay all of her dragons for her. But he had to let her go; and he was part of the dragon this time.

"Lily, we just want what's best for you."

Lily scoffed and headed back into the house. Her family may be loving, but they were overprotective as hell. She was sick of it. When would they learn that she was not only old enough to make her own decisions, but old enough to do it without consulting them every step of the way?

Harry sighed. That had not gone well. Maybe Al would be able to talk some sense into her.

Harry looked down into his hands and saw he was still holding Lily's coat.

* * *

"Ya okay?" Seamus whispered to Lily. It was sometime in the middle of the night. Lily had snuck into the room he was staying in after Lucy and Molly had fallen asleep. They were practically dead when immersed in R.E.M. and never noticed when Lily snuck out. "I saw yer da come back in after ya a little while later. He didn't look too good, either."

Lily shook her head. "James couldn't even look at me. I think Dad's going to be okay with it, though." She sighed and slumped back onto the bed, Seamus's arm pillowing her head. "James'll get over it. Al's fine. He was all smiley and stuff. Plus Jessie, Jessie Bones – I think you went to school with her mum – is here and Al's been all googly-eyed over her so he's just smitten with the idea of love, lately. He was almost a sure bet." Lily giggled. "I think Mum's going to get over it, as well."

"I'm glad, then. It sounds like it went o'er alright. I just wish I'd been able to help ya tell 'em."

"No, it's better I just did it. They're all extremely prone to overreact."

Seamus chuckled. "So're ya, darlin'. Admittedly, I can't judge from me position o'er here, either. I do it, as well."

Lily curled up into his side. She exhaled a gust of breath and closed her eyes. "I'm so comfortable right now. Just laying here with you. I wish we could stay here forever."

"We just might be able to," Seamus said. His voice was much quieter now, closer to Lily's ear. She felt something light be dumped onto her stomach.

She opened her eyes and picked it up, her eyes flickering back and forth from Seamus's gleaming eyes to the little blue velvet box. "Shay, wha-?" Lily suddenly felt tense and nervous and too hopeful to be possible.

"Open it," he urged.

A diamond ring, nestled between two small sapphires, glittered back at her.

"It was me great-gran's. She and me great-grandad were married fer o'er eighty years. Lived jus' t'about their whole lives t'gether. They even died t'gether, same day, same time. I figured it'd be lucky," Seamus grinned. "So? Are ya gonna say somethin'?" he added after a pause where Lily just stared at the ring, too surprised to say anything.

"You haven't asked me yet," Lily half-smirked, still too stunned.

"Lily Luna Potter, will you marry me?" Seamus's bright blue eyes bore into her own green ones.

"Absolutely," she smiled and kissed him. _This must be what bliss feels like, _Lily thought.

At the same time, Seamus slid the ring onto her finger.

* * *

**Okay, guys, that was the last big chapter about Lily & Seamus. I wanted to get in some of the family conflict. There will probably be a bit more involving Ron, Hermione, Hugo, & Rose in a little while. In the meantime, back to Rose & Scorpius next chapter, which I'm sure you'll all be happy about haha.**

**Thanks for reading and please review!**


	24. Chapter 23

"Mmm," Rose stretched, the heat of the sun burning her eyelids. Her arm hit something and she grinned to herself, curling up against the warm body.

Scorpius curled his arm around her in his sleep.

Rose fell back to sleep within minutes, comforted by her husband lying beside her.

Two hours later, it wasn't so peaceful.

"Mum! Dad!" Mia screamed, jumping on the bed. "Present time!"

Cassie leaped forward, landing on Rose's stomach. The wind was knocked out of her with an, "Oomf!"

Kate toddled in after her big sisters, clutching her blanket and with her thumb in her mouth. "Muhm-ee, Dad-ee!" She crawled up onto the bed and sunk onto Scorpius's chest. "Preshents!"

Rose chanced a look at Scorpius and saw him looking back at her. They shared the same small smile. This, right here, was all they needed in life. All they'd ever want, too.

"Mummy, how come Daddy sleeps in his underwear? That's weird!" Cassie exclaimed, her face coated in disgust.

Rose giggled. "It's because your daddy _is _weird."

"I am not!" Scorpius interjected. He swung Cassie up in his arms, tickling her ferociously. "Say it, say it!"

"Okay, okay," she screamed, laughing, "you're not weird!"

"Told you," Scorpius smirked at his wife.

Rose stuck her tongue out at him and Mia giggled. "Presents, Mum," she poked Rose. "Alex said he was getting me something! I wanna see!"

Scorpius looked like he'd been hit over the head with a bludger. Rose laughed. He was so not ready for his girls to like boys. She could tell Mia not to bring up Alex so much around her dad, but the look on his face was too entertaining.

"Okay, okay," Rose said. "You can have the gifts from Santa, but not from the family. We're going to wait until tonight after supper to do those, all together."

"Dihd Santa eaht the cookies?" Kate asked eagerly.

"He ate them _all _up," Rose answered. Scorpius faked a cough to cover his snort of laughter.

It was true that the cookies were gone, at least. Victoire had helped Remus, Cassie, Kate, Claire, and Mia make cookies for Santa when he came. Father Christmas (Arthur, Bill, Charlie, George, Percy, Ron, Harry, Scorpius, and Teddy) had, indeed, eaten all of the cookies. Rose and Victoire had awoken to the noise of Charlie and Bill wrestling on the ground for the last cookie while George was looking on, with everyone else, calmly eating it.

Rose and Scorpius put the presents in front of each of their daughters. Mia eagerly opened Alex's first. "Oh, look!" she cried. "He gave me a ring!"

* * *

Rose grimaced at the sight before her. Little Remus Lupin, his head barely reaching the table, was running around in one of Cassie's dresses and covered in Victoire's make up.

Teddy roared with laughter, after getting over the initial shock. Rose and Victoire looked at each other as if to say, _What did our girls do to him?_

The rest of the family laughed and joked, bringing up old hilarious stories. The time Harry and Ron were in Italy on one of their trips and they tried on all these suits in what they thought was a used-clothing store, only to find out it was a dry-cleaner's. The time George cursed Charlie to sing everything after he sung in the shower, mightily off-key. The time Dominique hexed Louis, making him go through puberty over and over again every ten minutes for a day after she found him going through her diary.

The Potter family, especially, was regaling tale after tale to Seamus. Rose had seen Lily's crestfallen face when she'd first come back inside of the Burrow after introducing Seamus to the family as her boyfriend. Now, it was alight with happiness, practically glowing. Her family was happy and smiling as well, completely and obviously accepting Seamus into the family as their own. Friend, brother, and son-in-law.

Although, Rose giggled, she was pretty sure that Lily wasn't enjoying the stories from her own childhood. Like the ones where Lily was running around naked in the yard or sitting on the toilet or begging Teddy, James, and Al to play princesses and dragons with her.

"Can we open presents now, please?" Claire asked. Though the words were polite, her wide eyes and hands clasped together along with the fact that she was on her knees, begging, made it obvious just how much she wanted to see her gifts.

"Nope," Victoire popped the 'p' and shook her head, giving her daughter a smile. "Cool it, yeah?"

Claire frowned but conceded.

Rose caught Victoire's eye and they both bit back a smile. Claire had a long time to wait. It was only ten in the morning. They probably wouldn't end up opening presents until ten at night from the family. Of course, Claire had already gotten Santa's gifts this morning even though she was lamenting the wait ahead of her.

Mia and Cassie were chasing Remus around the house, their laughter shrieking through the house.

Molly Weasley, the elder, was bustling around the kitchen, humming, smiling, and making breakfast. She'd shooed out everyone who'd offered to help earlier, saying that it was her kitchen no one here was going to touch the food before it was cooked; they'd give everyone salmonella.

Kate had crawled up onto Seamus's lap, always fascinated with the new people around her, and he was playing with her, making her laugh uncontrollably while still laughing and listening, himself, at the Potters' stories.

Scorpius was joking with Teddy, Fred, Louis, Bill, and Charlie. All of them alternating between sips of firewhisky and loud guffaws at whatever jokes and stories they were telling. Rose wasn't too sure she wanted to know.

Victoire sat down next to Rose. "Lily looks happy," she remarked.

Rose sighed and smiled. "She sure does. Everyone else does, too."

It was true. Everyone had expressions of delight on their faces; the house practically shook with laughter.

Everyone looked happy until Scorpius grimaced in pain, and clutched his at his abdomen, right where the curse had gone through. His was the only pain-filled face in the crowd, but there was enough pain in his single expression to last forever, in Rose's opinion.

* * *

"Stop it, Scorp," Rose put all of her weight into holding his shoulders down to keep him from squirming away from her on the bed. "I'm going to look at it!"

"You're not a healer!"

"But your healer taught me what to look for to see if you weren't healed, yet, and hissing in pain qualifies!"

"The more you do this the more I'm going to hiss in pain!"

"You're the one squirming!"

"Uh," Lily popped her head into the room, "Need some help?"

"No!" Scorpius yelled. Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to _petrificus totalus _you in a second."

Scorpius's eyes grew wide. "You wouldn't."

"Oh, I think we both know I would."

A second later, the only movement Scorpius could make was moving his eyes to follow his wife's movements so that he could glare murderously at her.

Rose lifted his shirt and stifled a gasp at the sight. The scar from where Ophiuchus's curse had sliced through him was opened again, not visibly bleeding, but bleeding internally. Spidery veins sprouting from the scar were spreading out all over his skin. "We're going to St. Mungo's."

* * *

**So we're headed back into more Rose & Scorpius! There will still be a few chapters and parts with the other characters as the main focus, but Scorpius and Rose are headed back to the center of attention, don't worry haha.**

**Review, please, as always! Thanks for reading!**


	25. Chapter 24

Scorpius sat propped up on the bench as Rose paced nervously in front of it. The healer still hadn't come in.

She supposed that it was because it was Christmas, but she was still annoyed.

"Rose, please stop that," Scorpius said faintly. "You're making me dizzy."

Rose immediately stopped moving and jumped up on the bench next to Scorpius. She didn't want to do anything to make him feel worse.

The girls were still at the Burrow. Rose doubted they'd noticed that their parents had disappeared. They were too immersed in their presents, Molly's cooking, and their cousins. She'd asked Lily to just look after them as they'd rushed out of the house.

A brisk knock came at the door before Healer Lottson entered, wearing reindeer antlers with little bells on his head.

Rose giggled and even Scorpius cracked a smile.

Lottson just looked at them sheepishly. "I was with my grandkids. They forced them on me," he explained. After regarding Scorpius's chart on his clipboard for a moment he said, "Alright, let's take a look. And Rose, get off the table."

Rose smirked and slid off the examination table, settling instead on one of the uncomfortable chairs across from it.

She could see Scorpius much more clearly from the chair, but she couldn't hold his hand, something she ached to do upon seeing how pale he was.

Scorpius lifted him his shirt to show the spidery wound. He hissed in a breath as Lottson's hands glazed over it.

"Scale of one to ten, how much pain?" the healer asked.

Scorpius glanced at Rose before answering reluctantly, "Seven…and a half."

The more Lottson poked and prodded, the paler Scorpius's face became and the whiter his knuckles became with his tight grip on the table, attempting to combat the hurt.

Lottson did a few more tests before excusing himself to process the results.

Rose sat back up on the table the second he left. "How long has it been hurting?" she demanded.

"Awhile," Scorpius admitted. "It wasn't that bad until today, though," he added upon seeing Rose's angered look. "Lottson said it was likely I'd experience some pain so I wasn't too worried by it. Besides, I just took more of the pain-relief potions when it got too bad."

"You're a masochist, you know that?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"Scorp, why didn't you tell me it was hurting?"

"Because you're worrying," he retorted. "You're always worrying lately. I didn't want you to have to worry anymore. I was finally out of the hospital. I was supposed to be healthy, again. You're not supposed to protect _me_, Rose. I'm supposed to protect _you_."

Rose gaped at him. Finally, she brushed his hair away form his eyes. "You're kind of chauvinistic, aren't you?" she smiled lightly, ignoring the hurt in her chest. It always felt like her heart was hurting when she realized just how much someone cared about her.

"Chivalrous," Scorpius corrected with a smile of his own.

"Tell me next time you're in pain?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

* * *

_His hands were reaching towards her, grubby, the nails coated with grime. A sinister smile on his face was gleaming at her._

_Rose shrank back into the ground, wincing as the cobblestones pierced into her back. But it didn't matter right then, he was after her and she had to get as far away as she could. Too bad she'd tripped, fallen. Now she was helpless on the ground, the devil incarnate hovering over her._

_"No, please!" she shrieked, her screams piercing the heavy air. "Please, please! Stop! I'll do anything! Don't do it, please!"_

"Rose!"

_"No, no," she sobbed, writhing underneath the intruder. She had to get out of there, had to do anything to escape._

"Rose, wake up!"

_His hands came onto her then, grasping and pulling. Rose's tears escaped her eyes. She kicked and bucked furiously, to no avail._

"Rose! Rose!"

"Mummy!"

Rose's eyes snapped open. She was breathing heavy, her chest rising and falling rapidly. She was coated in a sheen of damp sweat.

"Mummy?" a voice came from next to Rose and she whipped her head to the side to see Cassie standing on the side of the bed. "Are you okay?"

Rose tried to pull herself together. She couldn't lose it now, not in front of her daughter. She had to be strong. That's what parents had to do for their kids; they had to be strong for them, had to bear the burden of all of the terrible things in life to keep children from losing their innocence too soon.

Rose's hand moved of its own will, it seemed. It brushed over Cassie's hair. Rose heard herself speak: "I'm fine, Cass, don't worry." Her mouth quirked into a smile. "Just a nightmare."

"I get those, too," Cassie nodded, clutching her stuffed bunny. "Do you want Bunny?"

"No, you need it more than I do," Rose felt her heart break as Cassie shoved the bunny at her anyways.

"You feel better, now," Cassie fixed her mum with a stern glare. "Or else."

Cassie flounced off calling, "Good night Mummy and Daddy," leaving the sound to echo in her wake.

Rose put her head between her knees, taking deep breaths. She felt Scorpius's hand rubbing circles on her back and flinched.

She hadn't had one of these nightmares in years. Not since about a year after Mia was born. She hadn't been able to do anything with Scorpius sober until then. She'd been too afraid; every time they were close to sleeping with each other, she'd suddenly be transported back to York…she couldn't even think it.

A soft sob escaped her mouth and Rose felt mortified at the sound of weakness.

"Shh, shh, it's alright," Scorpius murmured. "I'm here, everything's okay."

Rose turned and slid herself into Scorpius's arms. She could do this now; she knew Scorpius too intimately to ever confuse him with York. She let a few tears escape as she buried her face in the crook of her neck.

"He's not coming back," Scorpius comforted her. "He's never coming back. Don't worry. You're safe; you're here with me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise. You're alright."

"I wish…I wish there was a way to make him suffer as much as I did."

"There is," Scorpius reminded her. "Turn him in."

Rose shook her head. "Then everyone would know." She glanced up at him, pleading for an answer. She just needed to escape from all of those horrors in her past, again.

"We'll figure out a way," Scorpius rocked Rose back and forth in his arms. "We always do."

* * *

"Mummy had a nightmare last night," Cassie said solemnly.

"She dihd?" gasped Kate, holding fast to her stuffed dragon while in the crib.

Scorpius saw Mia roll her eyes from his spot just outside the door. It was just too funny, listening to what his daughters talked about when he and Rose weren't around. It appeared as if they got along a lot better without their parents. He still felt a bit guilty for eavesdropping, though.

"Of course she did, Katie," Mia retorted, her hands on her hips. "Didn't you hear her screaming? I made Cassie go check because I didn't want to get up. I think we should do something nice for Mum," she continued. "She's not feeling well, so let's cheer her up."

"Let's make her breakfast!" Cassie insisted.

Scorpius quickly ducked into the bathroom as the girls paraded by down to the kitchen, mostly liked headed to make a mess while attempting to do something incredibly sweet.

He skulked back to his and Rose's bedroom, careful not to make any noise lest the girls heard him.

He slipped back underneath the covers and moved to spoon against Rose. Scorpius decided to let her sleep a bit longer, rather than wake her up. It wasn't like she'd gotten a lot of sleep last night.

He sighed. They were a pair. Originally teenage parents, a woman who had been raped, a man who had been cursed, almost killed, by his own uncle and was now suffering painful aftereffects. What he wouldn't do to give Rose a happy adolescence. Too bad it was too late for that.

It was why he worked so hard as an auror, Scorpius knew. He was like James in that aspect.

Scorpius couldn't save, hadn't saved, Rose from the horror of what York had done to her, so he was going to save everyone else from anything else of the sort. Particularly his little girls. They were never going to experience anything like his wife had gone through. Rape, especially, and teenage pregnancy. He didn't fancy having to go through what Ron had gone through with his daughter. Feeling like a failure in protecting your child.

Rose shifted and curled up against Scorpius's chest. Her eyes began to flutter and she yawned as she regained consciousness.

"Morning," she mumbled and nestled her head back into the crook of Scorpius's neck.

Scorpius chuckled. "Morning, love. The girls are making you breakfast to cheer you up after your nightmare last night."

Rose smiled. "That's sweet of them. I'm not even going to make them clean up the mess they're bound to make."

"Are…are you feeling better?" Scorpius asked hesitantly. Often when he, or anyone else, said anything relating to what had happened with York, she'd refuse to speak, respond, acknowledge that they'd said anything. It seemed to be a defense mechanism. She did it whenever anyone mentioned anything like what had happened so many years ago.

Rose nodded cautiously. "Yeah," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I had that nightmare," she shook her head. "I…I haven't had a nightmare like that for…five years, I think."

Scorpius just wrapped his arm more tightly around her.

A few tears escaped Rose's eyes but she brushed them away quickly. Not quickly enough for Scorpius to be blind to them, though.

He sat up and brushed the tears away with the pads of his thumbs. "Don't cry, Rose, he's gone. He's not coming back and he can't hurt you anymore."

"I just…" Rose moved out of Scorpius's embrace and tilted her head back and sighed. "I just wish it had never happened, or that I'd been obliviated or something."

"I tried to get McGonagall to oblivate you," Scorpius admitted. "She wouldn't. She said you had to deal with it and come to terms with what had happened. Dumbledore agreed with her; or, at least his portrait did."

Rose shook her head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore," she said. "Do you think the girls are done making breakfast, yet?" she perked up.

Scorpius flopped onto his back, making the mattress bounce and causing Rose to fall on top of him.

She giggled and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "My, my, Mr. Malfoy, what do we have here?" She ground her hips down against his.

Scorpius sighed in relief and then groaned in pleasure. If she was doing this, then she must be at least a little bit over her nightmare. Or at least she was pretending to be. Plus, it just plain felt good.

"Mum, what are you doing to Daddy?" Mia's horrified voice exclaimed from the doorway. She dropped the tray of cereal, milk splattering all over the carpet, and ran screaming back downstairs, "Mum is attacking Daddy!"


	26. Chapter 25

"So, is this why you and Lily had that huge fight?" Victoire asked. "Seamus?" She stirred her tea and set the spoon down on the side of the saucer before sitting down next to Teddy at the kitchen table.

Teddy ran a hand over his face. "Yeah," he admitted. "I didn't know who her boss was, but I did know that he was so much older than Lily."

Victoire nodded and tucked her legs up under her on the seat. "The whole saying, 'love knows no bounds', didn't apply?" she asked knowingly.

"I know it's hypocritical, but it's _Lily_," Teddy said.

Victoire's brow creased. "How is it hypocritical?"

Teddy hung his head. He needed to tell her. She was his wife, for Merlin's sake. He loved her; always had, always would. They were married, had two gorgeous children, they were family. She deserved to know what had happened with Lily so many years ago.

Teddy sighed. "Vic, I've got to tell you something."

* * *

Victoire didn't know where to go. So she stood in the pouring rain (how cliché) and stared up at the dark sky.

What she really wanted, right then, was for Teddy to wrap his arms around her and murmur in her ear about how it was okay, not really true, he hadn't lied to her for so many years, he would always love her, he didn't love Lily that way, and that without her, his life would be barren.

But he'd already done that, and it hadn't helped. It hadn't dispersed the feeling of betrayal, stuck deep in her gut.

If not Teddy, she wanted Rose or Lily. But Rose was too busy taking care of Scorpius, and Lily was sort of the problem. Oh, Victoire knew she wasn't really. She didn't hold any negative feelings toward Teddy or Lily for what they'd done. She was mature enough for that; after all, they'd been broke up. What she was angry about was the fact that Teddy hadn't told her. He'd married her, had children with her, and hadn't told her. Why had he kept it a secret for so long if he only loved Lily like a little sister?

Victoire furiously wiped the tears away from her cheek. Where on earth could she go? She couldn't go home and face her husband just yet. She couldn't go to Shell Cottage; her parents were far too nosy.

The only place she could think of was to go to Dominique's. But her sister's fiancé, Thomas, probably wouldn't love that too much. And she and Dominique had never been incredibly close. The got along well enough, but never like Dominique and Lucy or Victoire, Rose, and Lily.

But it was the only place she could think of to go. So she apparated there.

Dominique answered on the third knock, looking impeccable as always.

"Victoire?" she asked incredulously. "What're you doing here?" She took in her older sister's disheveled appearance, her clothes plastered to her body from the rain, her hair hanging lank and stuck to her face in strands. "What happened?"

"Teddy slept with Lily," she cried, before bursting into tears.

* * *

Scorpius was now forced to wear restricting bandages all day and night since he and Rose had gone to see Healer Lottson on Christmas. It was a bloody nuisance when at work, he reflected.

Scorpius tried to reach for a stack of paperwork on the corner of his desk and was stopped by the bandages.

He leaned a bit farther and wiggled his fingers, almost reaching the edge of the stack of paper. A little farther, a little bit more, almost there…

And the stack of paper tumbled all over the desk, fluttering up into the air before landing all over his office.

Scorpius sighed and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. Shit, this was more difficult than he thought it was going to be.

Ophiuchus still had to be interrogated; they'd laughed so hard the last time that none of them could remember anything he'd said and hadn't thought to record it beforehand since they'd been so pissed.

Rose had had the nightmare again, twice more, since the night before Mia had sort-of walked in on them about to…he wasn't going to finish that sentence, or else he'd have more problems which couldn't be fixed at work. It hadn't been fixed then, either. Rose probably would've eventually remembered he was hurting and stopped before he was too far gone to feel the pain.

Harry had been moping around the auror offices since they'd come back from New Years', the party and the hangovers, probably thinking about the kiss he'd seen his daughter share with his old dorm mate at midnight. Scorpius gagged thinking about it. Public display of affection didn't even begin to describe it. Admittedly, it had been private until a bunch of them had walked in on them.

Something was up with Teddy and Victoire; Victoire had stayed at Dominque's house a week or so ago and had come looking for Teddy and the kids at their house, Al's flat, and Lily's (empty) flat (she pretty much lived with Seamus) before finding them at the park.

Albus had been too busy with Jessie to do anything else than be with her. Scorpius figured they were still in the 'obsessed with each other stage'.

Speak of the devil…

"Hey, Scorp," Al plopped himself down in the chair in front of Scorpius's desk before propping his feet up on the desk in front of him.

Scorpius nodded as he attempted to pull his picture of Rose and the girls out from under his best friend's muddy feet.

"So…I have an idea."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. He, Rose, and Al: they were always having ideas. They'd played a little too many pranks in school. Although, he allowed, Callie, James, Fred, and Louis had been the worst offenders in that category. He was sure that they were going to get what they'd given when that kid of James and Callie's was born.

"How about you, Rose, and my favorite girls come over for dinner tomorrow night? I really want you guys to get to know Jessie better."

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. Jessie had made the man swear off substantial relationships for years, and now he wanted to go back to her? How a Hufflepuff had made such a lasting, and negative, impact on Al was the least of his questions.

"Al, I remember her. Rose remembers her. We went to school with her, do_ you_ remember?"

"Mia, Cassie, and Kate don't really know her," Al argued.

"Yet they've seen her at quite a few of the Burrow and Weasley – Potter clan dinners," Scorpius pointed out, giving up on saving the picture from Al's feet.

"Please, Scorpius? I really like her. I love her. She lives with me, for god's sake. And she actually has a brain, unlike the girls I've been dating recently. I want you guys to get to know her better, to like her. I'm hoping she's going to be around for awhile."

"Don't you remember what happened with her in school? She broke your heart, yeah?"

Al resisted from rolling his eyes. "In the past," he waved it off. "Apparently, you're still angry with her, though."

Scorpius groaned internally. How could Al not see it? He had the same problem, after all. They were both just so protective over the people they cared about. Scorpius wasn't just about to let Al go back to someone who had hurt him so much before.

Scorpius remembered how awful Al had felt and looked after Jessie broke up with him. He'd moped for weeks, acting like a zombie, just going through the motions for months. And then, all of a sudden, he'd bounced back and become a womanizer instead. He hadn't had a real relationship after Jessie until now – and with Jessie, again.

Al had been too afraid he was going to get hurt again, and so he didn't risk it.

"Mate, she hurt my best friend. I'm vindicated in disliking her."

Al wasn't about to say that he felt grateful to have such a great friend who cared about him so much, so he just kept pushing his point. "You and Rose need to get out of that house," he pointed a finger at Scorpius. "Mia sent me a letter, interesting penmanship by the way, about how Rose keeps having nightmares."

Scorpius groaned a slid down in his seat, running a hand over his face.

"I thought she'd stopped having those," Al said quietly.

"She had, until about a week ago," Scorpius admitted. "She'd been doing so well. She hadn't had one of those nightmares since about a year after Mia was born."

Al bit back a smirk. "Let me guess, about nine months before Cassie was conceived?"

Scorpius shot him the bird.

Al's face grew serious again. "Not that I like thinking about you shagging my cousin, but was that the first time she could do it, without being hammered, without freaking out?"

Scorpius glared, but nodded. "She's been fine, since around then. I mean, there's always going to be a little bit of a lasting impact, but it was getting to the point where it was practically unnoticeable. You could only see it if you were really looking for it. I mean, after all, most of the family still doesn't know. Most of the family never will know."

Al shifted in his seat. Rose's old situation reminded him of what he'd been thinking about recently, since Christmas and the surprise visitor. "Okay, not only do I want you all to come to dinner with Jessie, I want to know what you think about Lily…and Seamus."

"She's not _my_ baby sister," Scorpius pointed out.

"Yeah, but she's as good as. Teddy blew up at her, so we already know what _that _brother thinks. James is still pissed, mostly because she didn't tell any of us until they were practically engaged. I want to be happy for her but," Al sighed, "she's my baby sister. I'm supposed to _protect _her. Going around with a guy our dad's age isn't protecting her."

"She's happy, isn't she?"

Al nodded. "Yeah. I know Rose would say that's the important thing and to let it go but," Al hesitated and bit his bottom lip, "after what happened to Rose, and Callie, I…I can't _not _subject the guy to a little interrogation, you know? I don't want that to happen to Lily, too."

Scorpius got it. "I understand completely; but I think you're safe with Seamus. He isn't his son, Al. He's not going to hit Lily like how Ryan hit Callie."

Al nodded his agreement and then shook his head. "I've got to stop assuming the worst."

"Al, she's happy. She's one of the toughest people I've ever met, and there is no way that Seamus would ever hurt her on purpose; he loves her way too much."

Al looked a little uncomfortable at the idea of someone loving his baby sister, but he looked a lot more at ease than when he'd entered Scorpius's office.

* * *

Rose added Cassie to the stroller in front of Kate after picking her up from preschool. Last but not least was Mia.

Rose pushed the stroller down the block towards her oldest daughter's school.

She was thankful that the girls had only heard her screaming once from the nightmares. Although Mia had heard her another time when she'd fallen asleep on the couch. After the first one, Scorpius had cast a ton of silencing charms all over their bedroom and bathroom. Neither one of them wanted the kids to hear Rose shrieking from nightmares, or for other reasons.

"Mummy?" Cassie twisted in her seat to try to get a good look at her mother. "Can we get ice cream?"

"After we pick up Mia," Rose smiled, excited about the prospect of ice cream, herself.

Twenty minutes later, she sat in the little ice cream parlor a block from their house wiping away the ice cream smeared all over Kate's face as Cassie dug into her own cup of rainbow colored sherbet. Mia and Alex joked across the table while Rose multitasked by talking with Alex's mother.

These were the moments Rose loved. Where she and her girls were sitting around and having a normal life.

Her favorite memory of her life with Scorpius and her daughters was when the five of them went out to eat one night around Kate's first birthday.

Kate had ended up with food all over her face: in her hair, up her nose, splattered around her mouth, and creased along her forehead. Mia knocked over her water glass four times, spilling the ice cubes into everyone else's food and the last time the cup fell off the floor and cracked. Cassie was being potty trained at the time and she had an accident and wouldn't stop crying the whole dinner.

But she and Scorpius had been playing footsie under the table and they kept smiling to each other: this was the life they had now. Filled with kids, craziness, accidents, and plain ridiculousness. They were happy. At that point, they felt like they always would be.

They'd known it wasn't realistic. But they were just so happy right then that it seemed like it could be.

Rose wanted it to be like that again; no worries, happiness, carefree, and easy.

* * *

**Review, please!**

**Also, someone mentioned that they didn't know what Cassie's age was. She's four. My bad for not including that, haha.**


	27. Chapter 26

Rose nestled her head into Scorpius's chest, keeping her eyes on the movie. Around them, the girls were sprawled in their sleep. Scorpius was almost asleep himself.

Rose traced Scorpius's abdomen absentmindedly. She could feel the puckered skin of the scars and the puffy bandages underneath his shirt.

She sighed and withdrew her hand. She didn't want to feel that. She didn't want to feel Scorpius's pain; it was too much.

He so obviously felt completely restrained. Like Rose, Scorpius chaffed under restrictions and rules. All the healers had done was put him under those things: no active work – only desk work allowed, no running, no flying, no Quidditch, no picking up the girls or any other heavy things, no alcohol, no strenuous activity, and he had to take even more potions than he had when he'd originally been released from St. Mungo's.

Rose felt Scorpius's arm tightened around her shoulders and she looked up at him.

Rose shivered. His gaze was penetrating, deep, and stormy. Scorpius's gray eyes were as dark as the sky above a hurricane.

He leaned down and gently kissed her.

They didn't need words to speak; they didn't need words to communicate. All they had to do was look at each other.

With the look Scorpius had given Rose, she knew what he needed, even if he didn't know, himself.

Right now, he just needed to be loved. To be reassured that everything was going to be okay, after this. He was going to be able to live his life like he'd lived it before the accident.

Rose pressed her lips harder upon his. Her fingers traced the hollow at his throat, then up the side of his face, ghosted over his ear, and then twisted into his hair. Her tongue glided across his lips and then delved inside his mouth when he opened it.

She felt like she was flying when Scorpius's hands began to glide their way across her body, like they had so many times before. They could do this blindfolded; they knew each other so well.

Rose knew every nook and cranny of her husband's body and brain. This, right here, right now, reflected it.

She sighed in the pleasure. Scorpius's mouth could do things she'd never even imagined before him.

But Scorpius's gasp of pain halted her pleasure instantly. He bolted away from her, his hands clutching his abdomen as his eyes were squeezed shut in pain and his chest was heaving up in down as he attempted to draw breath.

Rose leaped over to him and pulled his shirt over his head, inspecting his wound. "Shh, shh, it's okay, nothing's wrong, you're alright," she kept muttering to Scorpius.

Luckily, the wound wasn't bleeding.

But a trickle of blood was dripping out the side of his mouth, instead.

Rose didn't think. She just acted as she saw Scorpius's eyes roll back into his head and his posture slumped into the couch.

A patronus flew out of her wand in the direction of her parents as she apparated to St. Mungo's, Scorpius dragging behind her, his wrist clasped in Rose's hand.

_Oh, God,_ she begged as her lungs were compressed by the blackness in mid-apparition, _please let him be okay. Please let him live. Don't let him die, please, don't._

* * *

Ron and Hermione Weasley appeared inside their daughter's house less than a minute after Rose left it. Hugo came only seconds behind them.

"Did she say anything besides us needing to watch over the kids?" Hugo demanded of his father.

Ron shook his head. He'd been the only one to hear the full message. It had been a jumble of words, frightened and confused, flung into a message without thought, just action.

The gist of it had been clear enough, though. Somehow, Scorpius was hurt again and they needed to stay with the girls.

She had to have been scared out of her mind to leave the girls alone, even for a few seconds.

"Where's Mummy an' Daddy?"

Ron's head whipped around to spot his youngest granddaughter, Kate, standing at the foot of the steps and clutching terrified to a stuffed dragon that Ron could remember Charlie giving her at some time.

"They had to go somewhere, pumpkin," Ron lifted Kate up into his arms as she stretched her own arms towards him, wanting to be held and comforted. "How about I make you some hot chocolate?"

Kate's eyes lit up. "Chocowate!" she squealed.

Ron put a finger to his lips.

"Chocowate!" Kate whispered.

Hermione and Hugo checked in on the other two girls while Ron made the hot chocolate for them all.

"What do you think happened?" Hugo asked his mother uneasily.

Hermione closed the door to the girls' room quietly behind her. "I'm not sure. My best guess would be that Scorpius's wounds acted up and something happened that made Rose worried enough that she believed she had to get him to St. Mungo's right away."

"I meant the cause of it," Hugo grumbled.

Hermione shot him a look saying, _Don't you take that tone with me, young man._

Hugo cowered instantly. He may be a grown man, twenty-two years old and out on his own, but he was still scared of his mother, as most children were.

"We're just going to have to wait and find out when Rose is able to tell us," Hermione huffed before going back down the stairs to her husband and youngest granddaughter.

Hugo rolled his eyes. Sometimes he felt like he shouldn't have traveled all around the world, working as a chef for four years. Now that he was back, he felt completely out of touch with everything that was happening in his family. He'd come back for every holiday and occasional visits, and yet he still felt as if he were being ostracized for leaving in the first place.

Rose had been going to do the same thing until she'd gotten pregnant with Mia. She, Scorpius, and Albus were all ready and set to get the hell out of England, travel around the world for a year, just the three of them.

It was sometimes a tradition for wizards. Now that he'd done it, and earned a living doing it rather than taking his parents money, he was being punished for it. So, he'd taken three extra years on the trip. No real harm done. He was back. No one had swept him off his feet and make him decide he had to stay with her in Norway or Australia or Peru or some other equally remote and far away place.

He was back in England and he was going to stay there. He'd opened a restaurant and had fantastic business, constantly.

But now everyone tip toed around him, convinced that he was ready to up and leave again.

Maybe it was a Weasley trait, Hugo figured as he started down the stairs.

After all, they'd all been rebels in school. The more expectations they had on them, the worse they were. Molly and Lucy had been almost horrendous. Of course, none of the parents knew about it. Most of the teachers didn't know, either. And Uncle Neville had promised not to overkill with the parental-teacher sharing, too.

Now that the kids were all grown up, they were spreading their wings and getting away from the pressure.

But he'd come back. Didn't he deserve a warm welcome? His parents had been ecstatic to have him back. But now his mother was getting more and more protective, irritable, and frustrated with him.

Then again, Hugo realized, he was being pretty egotistical. He should have spotted it before.

It wasn't him that Hermione was worried about; it was Rose.

Rose, his big sister who, though always protective over him, had been more of a little sister than not.

Rose, the girl who was being forced to relive some of her worst nightmares this year with Scorpius hurt.

He'd overheard them arguing a few weeks ago. They were the nastiest, dirtiest fighters Hugo had ever met. Scorpius and Rose brought up such terrible things when they fought that Hugo sometimes wondered how they'd ever managed to get together in the first place.

Scorpius had brought up what had happened to her in fifth year. Rose had bit back by saying his own flesh and blood had almost killed him. They'd hit each other with the biggest blows they could've. Family, and being weak.

Hugo sat down across from his niece at the kitchen table and stuck his tongue out at her, making a silly face. Kate giggled and clapped her hands together.

He wished he wouldn't think the terrible things he was thinking about her parents with such a sweet little baby girl across from him.

But Hugo could still remember the day his parents had sat him down and told him about what had happened to his sister.

The whole pregnancy thing had been spilled over Christmas dinner at the Burrow by Fleur, who hadn't even known what had happened, had just assumed. But the other part, the part where she'd been raped, most of the family still didn't know about. Hugo often wondered if Rose knew that he knew, at all.

Kate slurped noisily at her hot chocolate.

Hugo grinned at his niece. However Scorpius and Rose fought with each other, they were a great couple who loved each other and who loved their kids. Mia, Cassie, and Kate couldn't have begun to turn out as such great kids if they didn't.

* * *

Rose grasped at Scorpius's hand as he lay motionless in the hospital bed.

_"Please, please," _she begged, her throat clogged with the sound of unshed tears. _"Don't die on me."_

Scorpius was too far deep in the coma to respond. Healer Lottson had looked almost as worried as he had when Scorpius had first come in, months ago.

As Scorpius sank further and further into his unconscious state, he couldn't do anything to comfort his wife as she sank her head onto the side of his bed and let the tears erupt.

* * *

**Haha so yes, he's back in the hospital. Don't worry though, it's actually all going to go uphill from here, wink wink ; ) Also, Parvati48 mentioned that though I did say Cassie's age, she also asked about what Cassie looked like, so here it is: freckles, blonde hair, blue eyes, angelic. Basically a mix of Mia & Kate, or Scorpius & Rose.**


	28. Chapter 27

Draco felt a surge of hatred as he clutched the letter in his hand.

Rose may not be his daughter by birth, but he'd come to think of her as almost an adopted daughter, or well, his daughter-in-law, and he cared for her. He _didn't_ care to see tears staining a letter sent to him and Astoria.

_Not again_, was all he could think. Scorpius was hurt _again._ Damn that Ophiuchus. Damn Lucius for having an affair in the first place to create such a devil.

Astoria's hand rested lightly on Draco's shoulder. Even though Draco could barely feel his wife's delicate hand, its presence alone comforted him. They may not have an openly affectionate relationship, but they loved and cared for each other.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Astoria. Draco looked up to see she'd already changed out of her nightgown and had donned a cloak.

Draco nodded. This wasn't how he wanted to see his son for Christmas. Scorpius, Rose, and his granddaughters were supposed to come over for dinner. He wasn't supposed to spend it next to his son's hospital bed.

Draco nodded and stood up from the chair. Astoria slipped her hand into her husband's. Draco squeezed it.

They apparated at the edge of the wards, on their way to see their son lying prostrate, unconscious, with his wife watching over him like a miserable guardian angel.

* * *

"_Come _on_, Daddy!" Mia grabbed his hand and pulled. I watched on with a smile. "You're taking too long!"_

_Scorpius groaned and let his daughter pull him up the hillside. I held onto Kate's hand and the picnic basket handles, following behind them. Cassie trotted contentedly in the middle, plucking stray dandelions and wildflowers as she went. She'd been ordered by her older sister to pick up every daisy she saw. Since she wasn't quite sure what a daisy was compared to every other flower and weed, she'd picked up quite a few dandelions and tall pieces of grass._

_"Mummy," Kate gazed up at me with big, blue eyes underneath her red fringe. "Are we there yet?"_

_I almost wanted to laugh. Apparently Kate was like me in more ways than just appearance: Dad had told me stories of my impatience as a child. It hadn't gone away in me as I got older; it was doubtful it'd disappear in Kate._

_"Almost," I grinned and ruffled her hair. "You can always ask Daddy for a piggyback if you get tired."_

_Kate's eyes lighted up with glee and she launched herself at Scorpius. He picked her up and spun her around in the air._

_Their laughter echoed over the hillside._

_Cassie sidled over to me and held up a bouquet of messy flowers. "These are for you!"_

_My heart warmed at the sight. "Thanks, Cass." I took the flowers and inhaled. Confusing aromas of dandelions, wildflowers, and grass hit my nostrils. They were an array of blue, yellow, purple, white, and – was that poison ivy?_

_They eventually reached the top. Scorpius rolled out the blanket and I set out the food._

_It was so peaceful. So relaxing, calming, heavenly, really. Just the five of us, lounging out in the sun – a rarity for England – and being together._

_Scorpius pulled me over into his arms and kissed me lightly, rubbing my stomach. "It'll be more hectic with this one around, soon."_

Rose woke with a start. She whipped her head to the doorway and saw what had awoken her: Draco had hit the door open, making a loud bang. Astoria was right behind him.

Rose stood up and wiped her eyes. "Hi," she said meekly.

Astoria instantly grabbed her in a hug. Like her son, Astoria was a very touchy-feely person. "Hello, Rose."

"Merry Christmas," Rose offered up weakly. Astoria cracked a small smile at the irony. She eventually let her daughter-in-law go and sat down in the chair Rose had just vacated.

"Hi, Draco," Rose hugged him, too. Rose could remember when she'd used to hug him, years earlier. He would turn stiff as a board and awkwardly pat her back. Now, he hugged back.

"How is he?" Draco asked, his voice hoarse.

Rose shook her head. "I don't know. Before I fell asleep, Healer Lottson had just taken a bit of his blood for testing. He'll be back soon with the results, he said."

_Before I fell asleep._ It echoed in her head. Rose waved it away. She didn't want to think about that dream. It was too happy, too peaceful. Too normal. She didn't want to imagine that it could happen, there was too much hope there if she did.

Draco nodded and went to stand behind his wife.

Rose looked at them. The little family, together. Astoria and Draco watching their unconscious son. Astoria's face was worried, constricted with pain and grief over her only son. Draco's was guarded, but the faint crease between his brows gave away his true feelings.

Rose stepped outside the room, only to run into a tall body, built quite like her father-in-law, standing beside her husband's bed.

"Sorry, excuse me," she mumbled and attempted to move around him.

"Now, now, where are you running to so fast?"

The voice gave her chills down her spine. It was high, painfully so. It sounded as if it were stuck in a permanent scream at a whisper-loud level.

Rose turned to face the man and almost fell down from shock. Long blond hair, almost white, tied back with a string in a ponytail. A pointed chin, cool gray eyes. The aristocratic expression of disgust and distaste typical of a Malfoy.

"Ophiuchus," she gasped.

"We cotton on quickly, don't we, dear?" he leered.

Rose grabbed at her wand in the pocket of her jeans but Ophiuchus's hands were faster.

"We can't have you running away, can we?"

"Who's we?" she snapped. "Can 'we' back away from my husband and leave him alone?"

Ophiuchus clicked his tongue and shook his head, giving her a pitying, mournful look. "No can do. I need to get rid of him, to get my inheritance. Draco already inherited it, so only Scorpius is in my way, now. Without him, I'll have all the Malfoy money, everything I could ever dream of having, along with my late father's wife, dear brother Draco's wife, you, and your daughters." He crooned and his hand lifted to trace the contour of Rose's jaw.

This time, she couldn't prevent the shiver. The fear was starting to creep into her. It took root in her stomach and flourished, growing to her feet and keeping them firmly planted. Rose didn't think she'd be able to run if she had the chance. The idea of this man taking her children…adrenaline flooded into her veins, spurred on by hatred, disgust, and protectiveness.

"So that's why you hurt him. You meant to kill him."

Ophiuchus grinned sinisterly. "Oh, I didn't just mean to. I will. The curse is slow-acting. It gets better, then worse. You figured out how to stop it for a little while, but he's back in here, now, isn't he? Don't worry, you can cry on my shoulder at his funeral. I'll be sure to take good care of your daughters when you go insane from your grief."

A strangled sob released itself from Rose's throat.

"Stupefy!"

A red jet of light shot out of nowhere and planted itself firmly into Ophiuchus's back. He sunk to the ground, his eyes rolling back in his head.

Rose fell back against the doorframe, drawing in as much breath as she possibly could.

A figure flew over to her. "Rose, Rose, are you okay?"

She looked up to see her dad hovering over her, his wand still trained on the now bound and unconscious Ophiuchus.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you alright?"

Rose nodded and sunk into her dad's embrace. She clung onto him like he was her lifeline. Truthfully, he was. She was a daddy's little girl, through and through.

"He…He told me why…why he hurt Scorpius and what this whole mission was about. H-he wants the inheritance." Rose wiped away at the tears in her eyes. "With Lucius's will, Draco inherits, then Scorpius. It's medieval and only the males can inherit anything. I forgot about it until Ophiuchus said anything. Since we don't have any boys, Ophiuchus would inherit if Scorpius dies. He tried to kill Scorpius to get it; killing Draco wouldn't have helped since he already inherited it."

Ron grimaced. "We didn't know he'd escaped from the holding cells. But at least that clears up why he went for Scorpius and Lucius. We still don't know why he went about killing all of those muggleborns and other witches and wizards."

He hugged his daughter to him again. He'd been so close to losing her, so many times.

"Did he say anything else? We need to know. It might help us stop his accomplices." _And help save Scorpius._ The words went unsaid, but they both knew what each other was thinking.

"He said that the curse was slow-acting. And it would kill him." A few more tears leaked out of Rose's eyes. "He said...he said he'd hold me at the funeral."

Ron tightened his grip on his daughter.

"Rose!"

Rose's head snapped towards the sound. Healer Lottson was practically sprinting down the corridor to her.

"I found it!" he shouted, his face broken into a grin. "I know how to cure him!"

* * *

**That's the happy part, at the very end there haha. Review, please!**


	29. Chapter 28

The curse was in Scorpius's bloodstream. His kidneys were supposed to recognize the threat and cleanse it, but the curse had rendered his kidneys inactive. What had to be done was a muggle procedure called dialysis. It was used to clean the bloodstream when kidneys weren't working.

All they had to do was clean Scorpius's bloodstream of the dangerous cells carrying the curse in his body, and he would recover.

So Rose watched through the window outside the room where Scorpius's blood was being drained, then cleaned and replenished through some muggle contraption.

He looked so small, lying there in the white bed. Rose had never associated 'small' with Scorpius, before. It was foreign. A novel concept and a ridiculous one at that. He was too tall, too big, had too great of a presence to be small. Yet, as Rose stood there at the window, he looked tiny and meek, as if he had not the power, nor the strength, to get out of that bed.

Rose turned at the hand she felt on her shoulder. "Hi, Dad," she mumbled.

"Hey, Rosie," he said. "How's he doing?" he nodded his head towards his son-in-law.

Rose shrugged. "He's going to be okay. He just…he looks so small," she confided, her voice sounding pitiful to her own ears.

Ron spun his daughter around by her shoulders to face him. "Listen to me, Rosie, he's alright, he's going to be okay." He gave her an encouraging smile.

Rose nodded and her spine straightened. "He'll be fine."

Scarlett O'Hara had nothing on Scorpius; he was a survivor.

* * *

Scorpius was cleared to go home two days later. He'd woken up only a few hours after the dialysis had been completed, free of the curse, but Healer Lottson and the other healers working (being trained) on his case had wanted to keep him longer, just to be sure.

He was ridiculously thankful to be away and free from St. Mungo's. In one spirited moment he'd shouted to Rose, with way too much glee for someone with three children (according to his parents, not Rose or Scorpius), "I'm never going back there! Ever, ever, ever! Never! You can't make me!"

Now, they were just at their house, enjoying being with their family.

Hugo was sitting at her kitchen table, something Rose was still shocked about. She kept turning and checking to see if he was still there every five minutes.

Hermione was sitting with Hugo, Cassie, and Kate at the table, teaching her granddaughters how to make cookies.

Ron was in the living room, arguing with Draco over the best way to teach Mia how to ride a broom. Scorpius had already done that, so the argument was futile, but completely predictable and typical of the two of them. While they had managed to patch up a lot of their problems and apologize for just about everything, both Ron and Hermione still couldn't go to Malfoy Manor because of the terrible memories and some things - like arguing - just stuck. Draco had apologized for the ordeal that had gone on there and explained (though neither of them had really forgiven him at that point – it took years after that).

Astoria was sitting quietly in an armchair in the living room, watching everything going on with a small smile of serenity on her face.

Scorpius was, like his mother, just sitting happily, content to observe everything going on. Rose sat on the arm at the edge of the couch, just next to Scorpius, occasionally interjecting into Ron's and Draco's argument and tickling Mia.

"It's good to be home," Scorpius whispered into Rose's ear.

Rose smiled at him and brushed some hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, it is. Try not to scare me like that, again."

Scorpius just rolled his eyes, but accompanied the action with a sheepish grin. "Yeah, yeah, I got it." He paused for a moment. "Did Al contact you about having dinner with him and Jessie?"

"No," she replied, puzzled. "Was he supposed to?"

"I dunno. He came by the office the other day, saying he wanted us and the girls to have dinner with he and Jessie. Apparently, he wants us to get to know her."

Rose scoffed. "We do know her. We went to school with her. She broke his heart, way back when."

"That's what I said." Scorpius was all set to rest his case, at this point. He wanted to believe that she would disappear relatively soon enough.

"First Louis, then Al, next it'll be Hugo, at this rate," Rose said.

"Louis?"

"Oh," Rose went beet red. "Lily mentioned she saw him snogging someone a few months ago; she told me while she was staying here when you guys were all off on the auror mission. He still hasn't said anything, obviously, so maybe it was a one-off or something."

"Who was it? Anyone we know?"

"Er, yeah, but it's not such a great thing to be shouting right now," Rose glanced around at the parents and kids (and one brother) in the room. She doubted any of them knew about Louis's boyfriend. Assuming he was a boyfriend.

Three hours later, after everyone except for the occupants of the house had left it, Scorpius and Rose lay in bed, only one of them attempting to fall asleep, apparently.

"So, who was Louis with?" Scorpius pestered.

Rose laughed. The only person with more curiosity than she possessed, was Scorpius. It was incredibly helpful for being an auror, but it made him a bit paranoid and relentless.

"No telling anyone, promise?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I promise."

"Eric Hensworth."

Dead silence. Then, "Isn't he that Ravenclaw who would sometimes help James, Callie, Louis, and Fred play pranks?"

Rose nodded.

"Oh, well, good for him." Another pause. "Wait, since when is he gay? Wasn't he practically engaged to Gloria Ramirez a few years ago?"

Rose nodded again. "Yeah, don't you remember in like, our sixth year, and we were all drunk and playing truth or dare and James dare Gloria to kiss me and Louis was all 'no, that's my girl' while the rest of you just cheered?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said with a wistful smile on his face. "Good times."

Rose rolled her eyes. Every 'good time' in the stories from Hogwarts, according to Al and Scorpius, had something to do with going overboard on the booze and girl-on-girl action. They never wanted to mention all the sweet, sentimental good times that actually meant more to all three of them. They were such men.

"But…I mean, the Weasleys are probably the most accepting and supportive family in existence. Why wouldn't he just, well, come out? It's not like whatever he says is going to make anyone love him less."

Rose laughed. "Fleur would probably love him more. And Dominique would be ecstatic. Fred, James, and Callie would probably be a little annoyed that he hadn't told them before, or maybe he has," Rose conceded, "but everyone will still love him and care about him."

Scorpius shuffled around in the bed and Rose laid down next to him, finally finished changing into her pajamas.

"Well," Scorpius yawned, "we're not going to figure it all out tonight. Let's just get some sleep. Chances are, everyone but us already knows."

Rose chuckled sleepily. "Not with this family's gossip wheel. Besides, Lily clued me in, thinking she knew some big secret. If Lily didn't know, the chance is that not many others, did."

"True," Scorpius mumbled. Seconds later, his snores overtook the room.

Rose snuggled into Scorpius's side, draping a hand lightly on his chest as she, too, let sleep overtake her.


	30. Chapter 29

_Oh, shit, _were Rose's first words upon seeing the magazine laying on the doormat in the morning.

_Witch Weekly _had never been known for giving out reliable information, though the recipes were often pretty good (and Lily loved the Cosmo-like quizzes), but this was just a new low.

WEASLEY – POTTER FAMILY YOUNGER GENERATION UPDATE! the title screamed in big, bold letters.

It was followed by a bunch of pictures, splashed over the front page in collage-fashion.

A picture of Lily and Seamus kissing outside Seamus's front door in Belfast, the engagement ring on Lily's left hand sparkling and completely obvious.

A picture of Dominique and her fiancé, Thomas, eating and laughing together at a pub in London.

A picture of Rose, Scorpius, Mia, Cassie, and Kate exiting St. Mungo's, Scorpius looking particularly haggard.

James and Callie at a baby store.

A very drunk Fred, with an equally drunk Al, giggling and kissing Jessie, at the new bar in Diagon Alley.

Vic and Teddy, walking hurriedly across a street, an obvious amount of distance between them.

Lucy and Molly partying and dancing on top of a table at the same bar Fred and Al had been at.

Roxanne waiting for a bus (she liked muggle transportation).

Hugo cooking in his restaurant (how on earth did they get into the kitchen there?).

And, worst of all, Louis lip-locked with Eric Hensworth.

"Scorpius!" she screamed.

* * *

"Molly and Lucy Weasley, get your arses over here!" Percy Weasley screamed.

The two girls suddenly wondered if coming over for breakfast that morning had been a wise idea.

Percy slapped the magazine down on the table in front of them.

Usually, no one believed any of this. Uusally, the so-called 'reporters' just twisted stuff around to make it fit what they wanted it to. But now, these pictures were perfect proof.

And the guilty faces of Molly and Lucy proved it even further, the tell-tale red Weasley blush slowing crawling up their necks to their cheeks.

It appeared as if their father was about to find out about their partying ways.

* * *

"Maman! Dad!" Louis yelled, crashing into Shell Cottage. He had to make sure they heard it from him before they saw the picture in Witch Weekly. He'd bet anything that everyone in the family had been sent a copy. They all knew, now. James, Callie, and Fred had known before (they'd accidentally walked in on him in a broom closet with none other than Eric in seventh year at Hogwarts while they were executing a prank). But now, everyone in the entirety of the wizarding world would know.

"Oui, Louis?" Fleur appeared in the doorway, bathrobe over her nightgown, obviously sleepy, but still managing to look immaculate.

"I'm gay!" he blurted.

* * *

"Harry, you might want to take a look at this," Ginny said, dropping Witch Weekly in front of him.

Harry glanced at the title and rolled his eyes, seeing what magazine his wife had placed in front of him. "Witch Weekly? When have they ever printed something accurate?"

Ginny shook her head. "Not what they wrote, the picture of your daughter plastered on the front cover."

Harry grabbed the magazine. "She's engaged to him?" he said hoarsely.

"Apparently," Ginny nodded. "But way to ignore the picture of your son out drunk with your nephew."

Harry waved it off. "Eh, he's overage. As long as he isn't an alcoholic, that's fine. But Lily...she didn't tell us. She doesn't trust us to accept the choices she makes or the life she chooses at all."

* * *

The Burrow was awkward that night, to say the least.

All the kids just kind of huddled in a group by themselves, far away from their parents.

Lily looked distraught. She'd intended to tell her parents in only a few days at dinner with them. They'd invited Seamus over for then and she'd thought it had been the perfect time to tell them. But they knew about the engagement now and subsequently, knew she hadn't told them about it. They were hurt, to say the least.

Victoire and Teddy were off in a secluded corner, away from the rest of the family, arguing in hushed tones. From the melancholy looks on both of their faces, Rose guessed it wasn't going too well.

But no one looked more miserable than Louis. He was seated on the edge of an arm chair, his head in his heads and looking like he'd just lost the love of his life on the Titanic.

Rose couldn't even begin to imagine what he'd just been put through.

All of the cousins had just been all, "I'm proud of you" and such. They didn't think of him any differently. They still loved him. Sure, it was a bit of a surprise. But it didn't really make a difference in the long run.

But the way his parents were treating him…Rose wanted to smack Fleur and Bill. Fleur was just being cold and aloof; she resented the fact that Louis hadn't told her before he absolutely had to. She wasn't mad about him being gay, she was mad he hadn't shared this fact with her before the rest of the world and everyone accidentally found out. Bill, on the other hand, well…Rose doubted he knew at all. She was pretty sure that Fleur had hidden every copy of Witch Weekly in Shell Cottage and the Burrow and wherever they passed, it seemed. Because Bill could not have any idea with the way he was acting. AKA – clueless, something Percy normally was and not Bill.

Most of the Weasleys were that way. They preferred to live in ignorance of the 'sin' their children were living in. Not so much sin anymore, but at Hogwarts, they were blissfully ignorant of what went on. Most of the time.

But now a lot of the family secrets were out.

Percy shot cold looks at his daughters throughout the night. Molly and Lucy had seemed to be about to burst into tears the whole time.

Needless to say, Rose had spent most of the time with the kids, thankful that nothing about her and Scorpius had been all that bad. Of course, Scorpius thought it was bad; everyone now knew he'd been in St. Mungo's. But they had been lucky; Dominique, James, and Callie, too.

Rose knew it was for the best, though. The family was close; they shouldn't have to keep this many secrets from each other.

* * *

Teddy stirred the sauce. He had barely enough energy to hold the spoon. The ongoing fight with Victoire was taking all of the energy out of him.

He kept wondering if she was planning on leaving him. Just taking the kids and disappearing. The thought of it just about ripped his heart out, leaving him with a painful aching in his chest.

He wanted to think she would never do that. That she loved him, would never take his children away from him.

And she had assured him that she loved him. She'd said that she still loved him, she was just hurt that he hadn't told her when it had happened.

Teddy knew she had a point. He felt guilty for it all. But that didn't diminish the hurt he was feeling. Victoire, too. Teddy felt a void growing between them, a deep gorge. He wondered if they'd ever be able to cross it.

The back door opened and shut as Victoire came inside. She stripped off gardening clogs and gloves, dumping them in a pile with Teddy's shoes and the kids' shoes by the door.

"Hey," Teddy said.

"Hey," Vic responded, walking over to Teddy, shaking out her hair as she took it out of the ponytail. She leaned over the pot and took a whiff. "Smells good, are you making pasta?"

Teddy nodded. She looked gorgeous. He didn't want to take his eyes off her. Just in a tank top, jean shorts, and streaks of dirt across her arms, legs, and face from gardening, she still looked absolutely beautiful to him. She always looked beautiful to him, Teddy knew.

"You look beautiful."

Victoire gave him a wry look.

"Really, Vic. You look gorgeous." He looked down at the spoon stirring through the tomato sauce. "You always do," he mumbled. "Can…can we just forget about all of this? Please?" He faced Victoire. "I miss you. I'm dying here without you," he pleaded.

"Don't say that," Victoire said harshly. "Don't say you're dying. Not when Scorpius has been in and out of St. Mungo's for the last few months, _actually_ about to die half the time."

"Fine. I'm burning without you. I feel empty. We live in the same house but we barely acknowledge each other. And when we do, it's for Claire and Remus. I want us to be happy again."

"Okay," Victoire whiserped. "I miss you, too."

She walked slowly into his arms, every step feeling like a century to Teddy. And when he wrapped his arms around her, he felt complete again.

There had never been any contest as to who he would be with; it always was and would always be Victoire.

"Thank God," he whispered into her hair.

Victoire chuckled. "Yeah, I really missed you, too."


	31. Chapter 30

"I had this dream," Rose began. She lay on her back in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Scorpius lay beside her, almost but not quite asleep. Mia, Cassie, and Kate were tankered out down the hallway. Having run around all day, they'd fallen asleep almost instantly.

"And what was this dream about?" Scorpius grumbled, when he realized he was obviously supposed to respond.

"We were in the country, all five of us. We were going on a picnic, hiking up the hill. Cassie was picking all sorts of flowers and Kate kept asking if we were there yet. Mia kept pulling you up the hillside, convinced you weren't going fast enough.

"And we got to the picnic spot. And, you kissed me and rubbed my stomach."

"I rubbed your stomach?" The bemusement was evident in Scorpius's voice.

"Well, yeah. Apparently, I was pregnant."

"Again? Rose, you may want to consider getting that checked out…"

"Oh ha ha, so funny. It's half your fault."

"Did you just call our children 'it'? Don't stick your tongue out at me!"

"Why not?"

"Because you're not twelve!"

"I haven't been twelve in awhile, but I've still been sticking my tongue out at you. Does that bother you?"

"That sickly sweet voice of yours just then bugs me."

"You bug me, too. And now you're sticking your tongue out at me. You're such a hypocrite."

"Yeah but you love me anyways," Scorpius smirked. His face grew serious again. "_Are _you pregnant?"

Rose scoffed. "Oh yes, because we've had a lot of chances to get me pregnant in the last few months, what with you practically in the hospital the whole time."

"Well, we can rectify that now, can't we?" Scorpius said, then he kissed her.

* * *

Rose wandered around the house for the fourth time. There was _nothing to do_. She was so _bored._

The girls were all at school. Scorpius was at work. Everyone else in her family was at work or out doing something productive.

She'd cleaned the house, already. And she _hated _cleaning. With a fiery passion.

Now that she didn't work, she didn't have much to do. She'd even considered getting roaring drunk just to pass the time. She'd quickly x-nayed that thought.

She hated having nothing to do. She hated feeling useless and bored. Rose needed some sort of work. She didn't have enough time to go back to her job as a curse breaker, but she had the mornings free.

What did people do in the mornings? Besides drink coffee. Rose grimaced. There was no way she was going to become a 'barista' at some coffee shop. She hated coffee.

Maybe she could nanny for people or something. But then again, she had enough to deal with with her own children.

Rose jumped on the phone the second it rang. "Hello?"

"Rose! It's Victoire!"

"Hey, Vic," Rose breathed, relieved. She'd be able to get Victoire talking and then she wouldn't be so bored. "What's up?"

"Teddy and I made up!" Victoire squealed.

"Really?"

"Yeah! I think it's all going to be alright." She sighed. "I was getting really worried."

"Yeah, well, the entire family was getting worried. They all knew you two were having problems, they just didn't know what they were about."

"Hopefully they still don't know. I think you're the only one who Lily told, anyways."

"I think so, too. But at least it's all resolved now, right?"

"Right. My dad was starting to pry way too much. All of them are too nosy for their own goods."

"Too smart, too."

"Mhmm," Victoire agreed. "Anyways, I just wanted to let you know the good news, I guess."

"Don't leave!" Rose whined. "Oh my gosh I'm sorry. I can't believe I just said that."

"You're bored, aren't you?"

"So bored! How do you deal with this all day?"

Victoire giggled. "I don't. I work, remember? Me and the other fabulous healers at St. Mungo's."

"Oh, right."

"Why don't you go back to work, then?"

Rose sighed. She took the phone and curled up on the couch, throwing a blanket over herself. It seemed she was going to be there for awhile. "I just, I feel like I'm not focused on anything. Whenever I'm at work I just think about the kids and Scorpius and how much I'd rather be home. And because I'd been working so much I felt like I wasn't paying any attention to the girls."

Victoire was quiet for a bit. "I mean, you're obviously incredibly bored now. Do you think you did the right thing by quitting your job?"

"I did then. But that was right as Scorpius got hurt and Mia got the dragon pox. It seemed like I'd quit in the nick of time. But now…I dunno. I just feel like I have nothing to do 'cause I'm home all the time. Wait, why are you home?"

"I had a day off today, thank goodness. I was dying with all the work I'd been taking on to avoid going home. But now, I don't need to avoid it; instead I'm dying to get home."

Rose could practically hear the suggestive grin on her cousin's face.

"How are Teddy and the kids doing?"

"They're good. Claire tried to bake a cake the other day. There was flour all over the ceiling and it took me three hours to get it all off, with magic. Remus decided it'd be fun to try to unscrew all the legs of the chairs at the kitchen table. When we sat down to eat all the chairs collapsed from underneath us. I would have been pissed if it hadn't been so funny."

Rose laughed. "You're kids are brilliant. I swear Remus is going to be some sort of engineer someday."

"That's like a muggle builder, right?"

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't be surprised. He's four. I don't understand how he finds the screwdrivers let alone how to use them to loosen bolts in furniture."

"Let's just hope that doesn't carry over into Hogwarts."

Victoire laughed. "Oh please. Between the two of us, those five kids are going to doom us all."

"At least we'll have front row seats for that show."

* * *

**Review, please! Let me know what you want to happen in the upcoming chapters! Predictions, questions, comments, anything! I'll try and incorporate it into the story.**


	32. Chapter 31

Rose's hands fiddled nervously with the napkin on her lap. "So.." she cleared her throat. Oh, God, this could not get any more awkward.

"How is work, Jessie?" Scorpius asked, picking up his fork and taking a bite of pasta.

Rose sighed. _Thank you, Scorpius._

Somehow, Al had actually convinced them to have dinner with Jessie. They were at Al's apartment eating dinner which Al and Jessie had cooked together, attempting to 'get to know each other'.

Mia, Cassie, and Kate were wreaking havoc all over Al's apartment (possibly Jessie's too? Rose didn't know and wasn't sure she wanted to) which the four 'adults' were studiously trying to ignore.

Rose still hadn't forgiven Jessie for breaking Al's heart during Hogwarts and considering how stilted the conversation was on Scorpius's end, he hadn't forgiven her either. And judging by the anxious looks Jessie was giving Al, she knew it.

"Uh, good, thanks." Jessie smiled, trying to conceal how uncomfortable she was feeling. "We had an interesting patient in the ward a few weeks back. He'd come in with octopus tentacles sprouting from his head and a bright orange nose as long as Pinocchio's," she laughed.

The reference was lost on Scorpius and Al. Rose got it, but never having liked _Pinocchio_, she just gave a vague quirk of the lips and a nod in Jessie's direction.

Rose shuffled in her seat. Al took a few more bites of pasta. Scorpius stared at the clock. Jessie cleared her throat. The girls giggled in the background, unaware of the excruciatingly painful dinner going on only a few feet from them.

* * *

Somehow, Rose had been conned into doing the dishes with Jessie while Scorpius and Al got to watch some game on the TV. Rose was pretty sure Jessie didn't even know what a TV was. She'd never seen her in a Muggle Studies class at school.

"Look," Jessie said, suddenly breaking the silence. She faced Rose and dropped the plate back into the sudsy water, landing with a splash. "I know you don't like me. I know it's because I supposedly broke Albus's heart in Hogwarts or whatever, but that was a long time ago. I've changed. I promise. We all have, yeah? I mean, you have three kids. Can't you just give me a chance?"

Rose sneered. She couldn't help it. Mama-Bear instinct was taking over. "I gave you chance in Hogwarts, remember? I think you were the only person ever considered to be a 'Hufflepuff Without A Heart'."

Jessie's face burned red and Rose knew she'd hit a nerve. That nickname had been a cruel taunt, started by a bunch of Slytherins and, before long, the rest of the school had cottoned-on. But it was a fit name for Jessie's reputation back then. She'd toyed with boys' emotions and left them in the dust. Hit and run. And then Al had come along. It had seemed like it'd be different with him. They'd lasted for months. They'd been happy, good together.

And then all of a sudden she'd ditched him. With a fight. She'd said so many hurtful things that Rose was still astonished at them, that anyone could say them, let alone a Hufflepuff, a house notorious for kindness and loyalty.

Rose was even more astonished that Al had ever spoken to her again, let alone let her back in his life again.

She'd have protected herself from that hurt, walled up against it. Yet Al went out and met it. Had he really been so in love with her that he'd just gone right back to her the second she'd given any indication or flirted with him?

"I'm sorry," Rose apologized. "That was a low blow."

"Yes," Jessie nodded, turning away and back to the dishes, "that was. Can I ask you a question?"

"I think I have to say yes after I just said that to you," Rose said. _Come on, just take the high road_, she kept telling herself. She needed to give Jessie a chance. For Al.

"A little while after Al and I broke up-"

_As if you could call it that_, Rose thought bitterly.

"-you kind of, just, changed. You'd always seemed really happy, full of life, optimistic, all those kinds of things, and then suddenly…you were just a wall. Closed off. You'd always hugged everyone before, and then you just stopped. I think that was what I noticed most – you no longer touching anyone. And the whole getting-drunk-all-the-time. What happened?"

Rose shouldn't have been surprised. She really shouldn't have been. Jessie was a healer; she was trained to look for behavioral changes such as this and Rose remembered how she'd been studying for that career even early on in Hogwarts, while she was with Al, so Rose shouldn't have been surprised that Jessie had noticed.

But she was still stunned. And the frightened, terrified-out-of-her-wits feeling came back, seeping through her skin into her bloodstream.

"No," Rose choked out. She shook her head. "That question is not up for being answered." The words were hoarse and strained.

_Oh, Jesus._ She thought she'd gotten over this. She thought she'd gotten past this. Why, oh why, had Jessie brought this up?

"Oh-okay," Jessie said, bewildered.

"Excuse me," Rose ground out and practically stampeded out of the kitchen, leaving a confounded Jessie in her wake.

* * *

"So what did your parents say?" Rose took a sip of her tea and set it on the coffee table, looking on the other side of the couch at Lily.

Lily twisted the engagement band around her finger. "They were…hurt. They thought that I wasn't going to tell them. Probably thought I was going to elope or something." She shrugged. "I dunno. It took a lot of convincing to get them to realize I was going to tell them at dinner on Tuesday."

"Are they alright with it now?"

"I think so. They're better with it, at least." She sighed and smiled. "James is good with it, now. Al's alright, too. But something weird's up with my mum. Sometimes when I mentioned Shea she gets all funny. Refuses to meet my eyes and stuff like that."

"Well, she went to Hogwarts with him. Maybe they dated or were friends or something."

"Ew. The possibility that I'm marrying someone who dated my mother revolts me."

Rose laughed. "It is kind of gross, isn't it? But that's what you get for marrying someone so much older."

Lily glared at her cousin. "And here I thought you were on my side," she said jokingly.

The front door opened and closed and the two women heard a bunch of shuffling and some muttered cursing.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Hello, Scorpius," she called.

Scorpius's head popped out from around the entryway. "Oh. Hello. I didn't realize you were here."

"Where else would I be?"

"I meant Lily."

"Oh."

"Hi, Scorpius," Lily said. "How was work?"

"Fine," he nodded and dropped into the arm chair next to the couch, kicking off his shoes and pulling his tie loose. "We're questioning Ophiuchus tomorrow. I'm technically not supposed to be there."

"Why not?" Lily questioned.

"I'm 'too emotionally involved in this case'," Scorpius quoted, most likely protocol's words (Percy Weasley's words), not Harry's or Ron's. "But Harry and Ron said they'd let me in, anyways, so long as I don't punch the guy or anything." Just like Rose thought.

"Well, I'm going to be off," Lily said, standing up. "Did you get the owl from Dominique last night? She and Thomas finally set for the wedding and they sent out the invitations."

Rose nodded. "Yeah, it's someplace in the kitchen." She waved her hand in the general direction.

"That'll be nice. We'll have a big old family gathering with way too much booze and food and people and no one will remember most of it by the next day," Scorpius grinned.

Rose elbowed him. "Just because that's how you do it doesn't mean that's how everyone else does it."

Lily scoffed and Rose laughed at herself. "Okay," she said, "I retract that. Or family, with the exemption of Uncle Percy, does do that."

Lily left and Rose flung her legs over Scorpius's. "Want to hear something funny?"

"Something funny would be good," Scorpius nodded.

Rose could see bags under his eyes, dark purple. He was stressed from this case and not sleeping well. Hopefully, once Ophiuchus was locked up for good things would return back to normal. But Rose knew from experience, watching Scorpius and her dad deal with these cases all her life, that that could take years if one of the lawyers, or Ophiuchus, made it difficult for them.

"When I dropped Mia off at school, Alex kissed her hand, and then her cheek."

Rose had found it amusing. Apparently, Scorpius did not.

"What?" he shouted. "That little fucker-"

"He's six!"

"-is going to be so dead when I get through with him. Touching Mia, he's gotta have a death wish."

Rose rolled her eyes and let Scorpius continue to rant, tuning him out.

She figured she'd better leave out the part where Mia blushed and then showed Alex the ring he'd given her for Christmas – on her fourth finger, left hand – professing her love to him.

"Just wait. I'm betting you'll be singing a different tune in a few years when she's dating."

Scorpius visibly shivered. "Don't even joke."

"Or maybe she'll end up like me," Rose taunted. "No dating, just shagging and getting pregnant."

Scorpius groaned and his head fell into his hands. "Don't even joke," he repeated. "This really isn't funny. You said you were going to tell me something funny."

"Aw, you can't bear it when your girls are growing up?"

"No," Scorpius growled. "And we're changing the subject now."

Rose laughed again. They loved winding each other up and she'd found out about this particular button when Alex and Mia had first become friends.

"My dad's starting to try to change his will," Scorpius said suddenly. "Hopefully, this will all be over soon."

That was something they all needed. They needed to get their old lives back. Pre-Ophiuchus lives.

Although, Rose highly doubted that would ever happen.

Rose and Scorpius picked the girls up from school and daycare, made dinner, continued everything the usual way.

But Rose didn't say anything about what had happened with Jessie when they were all at Al's having dinner.

And when Scorpius reached for her, sometime in the middle of the night, she turned away.

"Rose?" he asked, hurt and confused.

She shook her head and avoided her husband's gaze. Eventually, she felt into a fitful sleep, her dreams plagued with cold stone floors, cries of 'stupefy', and a baby giggling.


	33. Chapter 32

Rose dropped the pan with a loud clatter when she felt a soft hand on her back. She jumped away from the kitchen sink and practically flattened herself against the wall on the other side of the kitchen.

Hermione stared back at her, eyes wide with shock at her daughter's reaction.

Rose exhaled, lungs deflating. "Sorry, Mum," she shook herself and picked up the pan, returning to washing it. "I…I'm just a bit jumpy lately."

Hermione nodded wordlessly, picking up a plate in the sink and beginning to help Rose with the dishes.

"I came by to ask if you, Scorpius, and the girls would like to come to dinner tonight. Hugo's coming over, too. I thought it'd be nice if we all had dinner together." Hermione spoke warily, studiously watching her daughter. Something was up.

"Oh. That'd be nice. I'll tell them. The girls will be so excited," Rose smiled lightly.

"Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, Mum," Rose sighed.

"Then would you care to explain your actions when I came in?"

"You didn't 'come in', you practically jumped me."

"I touched your back to let you know I was here. That hardly classifies as _jumping you._"

"It surprised me, okay?"

"I'll say it did."

Rose avoided her mother's quizzical gaze. If Hermione looked at her carefully enough, she'd figure it out.

Hermione cleared her throat. "How was dinner with Jessie and Al?"

Rose's hands gripped the pan tightly. "Interesting."

"Did you have a good time?"

"The girls did."

"Still mad at Jessie, then?"

"Absolutely."

"Al's forgiven her. She can't be that awful."

"I don't think she's _awful._ But I'm not exactly thrilled with her."

"Did she do something?"

"Besides break Al's heart?"

"When was this?"

Rose waved her hand. "Back in Hogwarts. But Scorpius and I still haven't really forgiven her for it."

"She and Al dated in Hogwarts? I don't remember Harry or Ginny telling me about that."

"Yeah, well, they wouldn't have. I don't think they knew. I kind of cautioned him not to. She didn't exactly have a great reputation, but Al loved her anyways."

"What was her reputation?"

"They called her 'The Hufflepuff Without A Heart'."

Hermione winced.

"Yeah," Rose said. "And she broke Al's in the end. I've never heard anyone fight so dirty, unless it was a fight between Scorpius and me."

Hermione chuckled. She dried a dish and set it in the rack next to the sink. "I couldn't believe you two stayed friends throughout Hogwarts, sometimes."

Rose shrugged.

"Why haven't you forgiven her? Al obviously has. He seems happy with her, too."

Rose hesitated. "Some things leave scars. I just think Al has too many from her. It'll all just happen again and I don't want him hurt like that."

Hermione felt like Rose meant a few different things in that sentence there.

Rose watched as her mom rolled up her sleeves. "See this scar?" Hermione asked.

Rose nodded. She'd never seen it before. It looked like writing on her forearm.

"Bellatrix Lestrange tortured me the year your father, your uncle, and I went hunting for horcruxes." Rose knew this part. Where was she going with this? "She carved 'mudblood' into my arm, so that I'd never forget what she'd done and how I'm worthless, not even human."

Hermione waited for a reaction from her daughter. "Some scars you can't see, Rosie. But you're strong. You'll make it through. You've come so far already."

A few tears leaked out of Rose's eyes. She turned and buried herself in her mother's arms.

Apparently the saying was true: no matter how old or grown up you are, you will always need your mother.

* * *

The Burrow was crowded. Though her parents' house had been loud with all of them there last night, it wasn't like the Burrow.

There were so many more things to notice at the Burrow.

Scorpius watched as Rose avoided all physical contact with everyone except for the girls.

Callie's stomach entered the room before her. When was that thing going to pop?

Dominique and Thomas seemed about to burst at the seams with happiness. They'd finally gotten around to setting a date and as Scorpius watched them, he couldn't deny that they were perfect for each other. They didn't seem able to stand away from each other for any length of time and when they were away, they kept turning and smiling at each other.

Most surprising of all, however, were Louis and Eric.

They were sitting on the couch in the corner, just talking and laughing, occasionally joined by other family members.

Bill finally knew. And he was completely alright with it. He'd shaken Eric's hand and said it was nice to meet him. Bill had always been the most accepting in the family.

Oddly enough, Hermione kept rubbing her forearm and glancing at Rose. Scorpius wondered what was up with that, but didn't have long to think about it because Kate hopped in his lap, making her stuffed dragon crawl all over him as it ran from the evil chimpanzee. He had no idea where she'd come up with that one. Probably from Remus and his fear of monkeys. How did she even know how to say 'chimpanzee'?

Three yawns later…"Come on, bug, time for bed," Scorpius scooped Kate up in his arms. His daughter clutched tightly to the dragon and shook her head fiercely while fighting another yawn.

"No, I wahnna stay here," she mumbled.

Scorpius smoothed Kate's red-orange curls away from her lightly freckled face. She looked so much like Rose.

"I'll put you up to sleep in Aunt Ginny's room. I have a feeling Cassie will be joining you shortly," he said, seeing Cassie slumbering in the arm chair next to Louis.

"M-kay," Kate snuggled into Scorpius's chest and hooked her arms around his neck.

A surge of love swept through Scorpius. This little girl in his arms loved him so unconditionally. What had he ever done to deserve this? How had he ever gotten so lucky?

This little girl depended on him. He protected her, saved her, raised her, loved her.

Getting Rose pregnant so young had probably been the luckiest thing to happen to him in his life, Scorpius realized. If she hadn't, he probably wouldn't have Rose the same way, he wouldn't have Mia, Cassie, or Kate. He wouldn't have his life the way it was now.

God he loved his girls. There was no way he was ever going to let someone like Ophiuchus separate him from them. He'd make sure of it.


	34. Chapter 33

**I was having so much fun writing a bunch of these chapters that I just had to upload faster than normal haha. So here the next chapter is!**

* * *

"Why is your cousin so jumpy?"

Al looked up from the book in his hands.

Jessie was standing over him, hands on her hips and a righteously-quizzical expression on her face.

Uh-oh.

Al marked the page in his book and set it down on the couch beside him. He took a deep breath. This was going to be…interesting. "Which cousin? I kind of have a lot."

"Oh ha-ha. Rose."

Al cocked his head to the side, eyes staring past his girlfriend, feigning confusion. "Rose is jumpy? Are you sure? I don't think so." He shook his head. "No, nope. She's never jumpy. Maybe you're thinking of Lucy?"

Jessie practically bore her teeth at him. "I'm just trying to help," she seethed.

"I'm pretty sure that if anything was wrong with her, she wouldn't come to you for help," said Al calmly. He might've had an even voice, but he knew he was digging himself deeper and deeper into trouble. This Jessie wasn't like the one he'd fallen in love with. Right now, this was the Jessie who had dumped him in front of the whole school after dinner when they'd gotten into a huge fight.

"And _why _doesn't she like me? Scorpius, too, for that matter? Even their daughters avoid me!"

Al's face grew hard. "I'm sure they both have their reasons. And the girls are all very observant. They probably noticed their parents weren't incredibly fond of you and thought there was a good reason for it."

"And what are their reasons, then?"

"When did you ever give her a reason to like you?"

"When did I ever give her a reason to dislike me?" Jessie retorted.

Albus snorted. He couldn't do this anymore. She really was a bitch. Not to mention she left stuff lying all other apartment, dirty, clean, whatever. It was all over the place and created a giant mess. He hated mess.

"I think she has some deep dark secret that you're all trying to hush up," Jessie sneered. "Does Scorpius even know what it is? What is it, Albus, huh? You know what I think? I think you two are too close. I think you two did the naughty together once long ago and have never gotten over your feelings for each other."

Albus stared at her, appalled. He had never wanted to hit anyone more in his life. He wanted to grab her neck and choke the life out of her. He was an auror, he knew how. He could do it. All that training had taught him how to kill, how to defend himself and protect others, how to recognize the bad from the good, how to survive.

And then it hit him.

He whipped out his wand. "Stupefy!" he cried, watching as the red jet of light shot into Jessie's chest, as her eyes rolled back in her head and she sank to the ground.

It wasn't Jessie at all.

It was Opihuchus's accomplice. The accomplice they had been searching for; the one who had broken Ophiuchus out of prison so that he could get to St. Mungo's and watch his curse work on Scorpius, accost Rose.

Albus bound Jessie – the accomplice – up tightly, with no chance of escape, and sent a patronus off to Harry, Ron, Scorpius, and James.

They were almost there. They were going to solve this case.

* * *

"I've never wanted to hit anyone more in my life," Albus confided in Scorpius, the very same words he'd thought only yesterday, taking a long pull from his bottle of firewhiskey.

The Leaky Cauldron was bustling and they were seated at the bar in the very back, almost out of sight and certainly out of hearing range. Not only because they'd cast _Muffliato._

"I've never hit a girl before," Al continued. "But I seriously thought I was going to."

"I have," Scorpius said quietly.

"You have what?"

"I've hit a girl before."

Al gaped at him. He'd never suspected his best friend was capable of that kind of behavior. He was chivalrous to a scary height, just like Al. "Who?"

Scorpius chuckled without mirth. "Your cousin. My wife."

"You what?" Al's voice was low and dangerous.

"I was in a mood," Scorpius began to explain, his voice shaky. "She was trying to get me out of it, and she knew the way to do it was start a fight. She just…we fight dirty, you know that. But this, this was bad. It started out with her trying to make me feel better, then into a fight about Mia – she was pregnant with her at the time-"

"You hit my pregnant cousin? What the fuck?" Al interrupted quietly. His voice could barely be heard, he was so mad.

"-and I asked Rose if she even knew if I was the father, implying that she was a whore," he said, as if it needed explaining. "And then the fight got really bad. She said…she said I was no better than my Death Eater father and grandfather," Scorpius whispered. He stared down into the bottle of firewhiskey, clutched in his hand. "And I hit her." His voice was hollow. "She crashed into a table. I picked her up and pinned her against the wall. She punched me back, but, oh God, she just…she looked so _scared_. Al, Al, it's the biggest regret of my life. You have no idea. If you'd hit Jessie or whoever it is, you'd never have gotten over it."

"You hit Rose," Al's voice was hoarse, his throat felt coated in some sort of nasty mucus that wouldn't let the words out without a fight.

His entire world was crashing down on him.

First, the girl he thought he'd been living with for months was actually a man who worked for someone trying to kill his best friend. And now he didn't know where Jessie was, or if she was even alive. Or if he'd ever actually seen her again in the first place. They had yet to get any information out of the man in custody, including his name.

And Scorpius had hit Rose. Scorpius had _hit _Rose.

God, this world was turning upside down. He felt powerless against it.

* * *

Scorpius lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling. Beside him, he was pretty sure Rose was doing the same thing.

He couldn't stop replaying the conversation he'd had with Al over and over again in his mind. He'd never told anyone about that. Rose hadn't either. They had never really discussed it.

Scorpius's grandfather had encouraged him to be violent when he was younger. Lucius continually told Scorpius that fighting was the only way to settle things; violence was for the best. Draco had been livid when he'd found out. They hadn't spent Christmas there ever again. It had just become the three of them every year after that.

Up until the moment he'd hit Rose, Scorpius thought that that urge had been dampened out of him: the one that had told him to hit when mad. Lucius had started on him when he'd been young. Scorpius didn't think his parents had ever understood all the things Lucius had tried to convince him of. He had no idea how he'd been able to turn out alright after all of Lucius's 'teachings'.

But once his hand had connected with her face…Scorpius shivered just thinking about it.

"Rose?" he asked, breaking the silence. That one word was like a slice through the room, cut through the thick, syrupy air.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Pause.

"For what?" Rose laid her hand on Scorpius's arm. It was the first time she'd touched him in days and he wanted to shrink away. He felt dirty, tainted. The memory of hurting her fresh in his mind, creating this feeling. He wondered if this was how Rose had felt after York had hurt her.

"For…for hitting you. I'm so sorry."

Rose rolled over onto her side and looked at Scorpius. Blue eyes connected with gray. "That was so long ago…what brought this on?"

Scorpius sighed. "You know how Jessie isn't actually Jessie?"

Rose nodded.

"Al said that he'd never wanted to hit a girl, until he'd had that fight with her. And I just…remembered when I'd – I'd h-hit y-you."

"Scorpius…" Rose whispered. Her fingers caressed his cheek. He caught her hand in his and held tight. "It's okay," she said. "I mean, it's not. But you were devastated that you did that. Still are, apparently. And you haven't done it again, and are never going to. You're not Lucius. And as much as I love your dad, you're a better man than him, too."

He looked up at her with pleading eyes.

They cut Rose to the core. He didn't have moments of weakness often. In general, he was very strong. A person to lean on, protect, defend. But ever since Ophiuchus had cursed him, that had changed a bit.

"I don't hold it against you," Rose said. "I baited you. I was cruel and what I said was awful. You didn't deserve it then and you don't deserve it now. It's alright. It really is, Scorpius."

Scorpius sighed. He turned into Rose. "Thank you," his voice was muffled by her hair.

Even as he felt a cleansing feeling wash over him, a relief coursing through his bones, he noticed that she was letting him touch her, something she'd avoided the past week or so.

"What did Jessie say to you, to set you off?" he finally asked. He needed to know. He was supposed to take care of her. If he didn't know, he couldn't do that.

Rose shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it.

"Rose…"

Scorpius knew she knew what he was saying, just by speaking her name: we're married, we need to trust each other, tell each other things, talk to each other.

She rolled her eyes. "Jessie…she just…she asked me why I couldn't just give her a chance. I said I'd given her a chance during Hogwarts and brought up the whole 'Hufflepuff Without A Heart' thing, which was definitely not a great idea, but oh well. And then she said that she'd noticed that I'd 'changed' a little while after she and Al broke up. She specifically mentioned me not touching or hugging anyone. And she asked what happened."

"Oh." That one syllable spoke volumes for both of them.

"Well, it wasn't really Jessie. But that whole thing is so confusing that it just doesn't make any sense. Who knows what's going to happen with it?"

Scorpius shrugged. He and the entire auror department were working on it. They just needed to get the answers, and soon. Someone out there was desperately trying to break Ophiuchus free and continue his work. And it had to be stopped.

* * *

**Review, please! I'll update sooner with more reviews! And thanks so much to Parvati48 and Hamster157 for reviewing on every chapter! I appreciate it so much - so thanks!**


	35. Chapter 34

"Fine!" the man screamed. "I'll tell you. Just…just please stop."

Scorpius glanced at the prisoner in surprise. All they'd been doing was interrogating him. They weren't torturing him or anything.

Apparently he was just sick of their voices.

Sometimes, when the prisoners weren't cracking, James and Scorpius would start singing drinking songs very off key; they'd stop when the prisoners would start talking.

It was pretty damn effective. They both had terrible voices. It was like listening to a gorilla gurgle rusty nails.

"I'm...my name is Francis Warrington," he began, and then it was like word vomit. Everything, all the secrets, were spilling out of his mouth in a rush. "I've worked for Ophiuchus Malfoy for three years, when the operation began. It only started getting big in the last year or so. I impersonated Jessica Bones to gain information about the Potters' and Weasleys', especially their weaknesses. She is currently in Morocco, believing herself to be Haley Summers, an American traveling abroad. No harm was done to her," he added, upon seeing James's murderous face and his hands rhythmically clenching and unclenching, feeling empathy for his younger brother. "I was the last to try to help Ophiuchus. Everyone else has given up. But I can give you their names."

And he did. Warrington gave them a list of upwards of thirty people, all working under Ophiuchus.

He had cracked. And Ophiuchus was next.

Things were finally turning around.

* * *

Dominique's and Thomas's wedding was days away. Rose needed to find something to wear, as did Mia, Cassie, and Kate.

"Come on, girls, we're going in here," Rose pulled them in through the doorway of a shop in Diagon Alley. Lily was just inside, right where they were supposed to be meeting.

The shop was filled with dressy clothing, perfect for a wedding for any age. So long as they were girls.

"It's my favorite girls!" Lily cried.

"Aunt Lily!" the shouts of Rose's daughters could be heard across the store. The women shopping in there looked over at the scene with a sweet smile on the faces, watching the tenderness and love exchanged in the big group hug.

"Well now, let's go find something pretty for you to wear," Lily said.

Cassie clutched onto Lily's hand as the shopping began.

Three dresses and two pairs of shoes later, each…

"Mia, it's not practical."

"But _Mum_, _you_ have a glittery-sparkly dress."

Rose felt horrified that Mia was using that argument against her. She'd let the girls play dress up with some of her old clothes, including the silver, sparkly, extraordinarly _short_ dress she'd worn for New Year's Eve when she was sixteen. That was not a dress that she'd ever have let her daughters know she'd worn. It wasn't the type of clothing that you ever wanted your daughters to see, either.

"Yes, but I was a lot older. You need a nice dress that you can wear for their wedding."

"Why can't I wear this one?"

Rose was at her last resort. "Alex doesn't like sparkles."

"So?" Mia's face scrunched up in disgust. "Why does it matter if he likes or doesn't like what I wear? He'll still be my best friend even if I wore a bathing suit everyday!" Mia giggled at the thought of wearing a bathing suit everyday while Rose wondered if her daughter was sixteen, not six.

Eventually, they all left the store in one piece, five dresses richer, their purses quite lighter with the lack of galleons.

* * *

Scorpius twirled his oldest daughter around the ballroom floor. Mia stood on his toes, giggling, spinning round and round with her father.

"Dad, why don't we do this a lot?"

"Because people in our family don't get married all the time," Scorpius replied.

He surveyed the throng of people, all crowded together to celebrate Dominique's and Thomas's wedding. They were laughing, dancing, drinking. Everyone had a bright smile on their face.

Charlie and George had long since commandeered a number of bottles of firewhiskey, singing a terrible rendition of something by Celestina Warbuck. It was obvious they were drunk as soon as they started singing that; no on could ever stand Celestina sober, besides Mrs. Weasley. Even drunk she was a pain.

Scorpius was surprised at the amount of people at the wedding. He knew he shouldn't have been, given how large the family was in the first place, not even including all of the family friends considered to be family. But Dominique had always had a rough edge and Scorpius hadn't known she'd had this many friends. Being so far behind her in years at school, he'd never been there at the same time as her and he hadn't known she was such a friendly person to just about everyone.

"I think I want to be a dancer," Mia sighed. She gazed up at the starry night. Mia stood up on her tip-toes and raised her hands above her head like a ballerina, gracefully turning in a circle before slinking down into a curtsey.

Scorpius laughed and picked up his daughter, swinging her around in the air. "You'd be a wonderful dancer. You'd be a good at anything, Mia."

Mia's cheeks turned a wonderful pink, just like any true Weasley. "Thanks, Dad."

Scorpius just grinned. She was such a mixture of him and Rose. Smart, resourceful, loyal, kind, a bit egotistical and such a joker. The tell-tale blush was all Rose's, though.

"One day, I'm going to get married and be as happy as Aunt Dominique and you and Mum," Mia stated.

"Far off in the future, bug," Scorpius said. The thought of any of his little girls growing up was just a little bit unnerving, frightening, really.

Mia pouted. "I want to be grown up now. So I can dance like this all the time." She stepped back on Scorpius's feet and let her dad whisk her around the dance floor.

* * *

Lily twister her fingers in Seamus's, clutching his hand tightly. He was almost _too _divine of a dancer. She felt a flutter of anxiousness in her stomach every time he dipped her or spun her.

Seamus just laughed. "Nervous, love?"

Lily giggled. "A bit."

"Why?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know if I'm nervous, really. I just feel so happy," she grinned. "It's like I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop; that's what I'm nervous for."

"Another shoe isn't going to drop, Lil," Seamus said. "Just enjoy it."

Lily did. Seamus twirled and twirled her around the dance floor. She felt weightless, free, elated.

This feeling was brilliant. She wanted it to last forever.

* * *

Teddy draped his arm over Victoire's chair, watching as she held Remus on her lap, who was fast asleep.

He'd had a feeling of contentment stored inside of him ever since he and Victoire had made up. He felt so grateful that she was there, by his side.

Victoire glanced up at him, giving him a small smile. She shifted Remus in her arms and turned a bit in her chair to face her husband better.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.

Teddy brushed a curl away from her face. The sun was sinking beneath the horizon. Its last effort brought a glow to the sky, illuminating Victoire's face. The light made the gloss on her lips shine a bit more than usual.

"Because I love you. And because you're gorgeous. Because I am the luckiest man on Earth."

Victoire laughed. "When did you become so sentimental?"

Teddy shrugged, letting his arm fall from the chair onto Vic's shoulders.

"I love you, too," she added.

Remus maneuvered his thumb into his mouth and sucked loudly. Victoire giggled. He shifted and curled his head into the crook of her arm. He must be heavy, Teddy thought. The boy was four years old and not exactly a scarecrow.

"Let's take a trip somewhere," Victoire said suddenly.

Teddy's head snapped up to look at his wife. Her eyes were blazing with excitement.

"Just the two of us. We'll get one of the family to take care of the kids. Let's just _go_. Somewhere, anywhere. We haven't had much time to ourselves. Let's just get out of here."

Teddy grinned at the thought. Just the two of them on some deserted beach, no one else around for miles, drinking margaritas and the other kind of drinks that they could never have around the kids. It sounded like Heaven.

"Yes," he said. "Let's go. Anywhere. I don't even care. I just want to be with you."

Victoire leaned up and kissed him. "I'm so glad we made up," she murmured, face close to his. "I would've been absolutely lost without you."


	36. Chapter 35

Rose had finally gotten the girls to sleep. It had taken four lullabies and two stories, but they seemed to be out.

Rose collapsed on the couch downstairs, exhausted.

It was only about eight o'clock, but it felt like she'd lived a cat's nine lives in the past day.

Mia had managed to knock over all the contents in the refrigerator. Cassie had hid Rose's wand in a game of hide-n-seek gone awry, so Rose had had to pick up every object from the fridge by hand. Most of it had been ruined in the fall, although the food had probably already been moldy and Rose just hadn't noticed. She didn't spend too much time rustling through her fridge.

Rose had spent most of the afternoon cleaning up that mess. And then, somehow, Kate had managed to get herself covered in something purple – Rose had no idea what, but suspected something from her uncle George – and it took a good two hours in the bathtub to squeeze whatever that gloop was out of Kate's hair.

And, of course, Scorpius had been incognito for most of the day. He tried his best not to work weekends, unless off on a mission, but he'd left early in the morning, leaving a note for Rose on his pillow that he'd gone to work and wasn't sure when he'd be back.

It was nearly eight thirty at night and he still wasn't back.

Rose nestled her head into the pillows on the couch and before long, she fell asleep.

* * *

Scorpius closed the door quietly behind him. He kicked his shoes off and dumped his coat and briefcase on the little bench in the entrance hall. If he didn't make a sound, he wouldn't wake anyone up.

He took a step forward and went flying, with a great shout, "Ahhhh!"

He glanced at what lay tangled in his feet, trying not to feel the bruises blossoming all over his body. Of course, Cassie's doll.

"Hello?" a small voice asked. It sounded faint.

"Rose?" Scorpius crawled over into the living room and saw Rose lying on the couch.

Rose opened her eyes just a bit and saw her husband crouched right up next to her. "Ahhhh!" she screamed, jumping back into the edge of the couch and knocking her head into the armrest. "Ouch," she mumbled, her eyes squeezed shut with the throbbing headache she had just acquired, her hand cushioning the back of her head.

"Sorry," Scorpius said, stifling a laugh.

Rose heard it though. She opened her eyes to just a slit and glared at him.

He held his hands up in mock surrender.

"What time is it?" Rose asked.

"Almost midnight."

"And you're just getting home?"

Scorpius nodded guiltily. He hated working so late that he didn't get to see his family all day. But they still hadn't found Jessie in Morocco and they were getting worried that Warrington hadn't been telling the truth about not hurting her. He had continued to give them information, but that didn't ease Albus's worry and anxiety.

Scorpius could see how stressed out about all of this Albus was. Scorpius would've been if he were in Al's shoes, too. Al still had no idea how long Warrington had been impersonating Jessie for. Scorpius felt so sorry for Al; he might have Avada-ed himself if he'd thought he'd slept with Warrington, thinking it was Jessie. Scorpius had to admit he was impressed Al wasn't continually scrubbing himself down with soap, just because of that possibility. He definitely would've done that.

But Rose didn't need to hear about that.

So Scorpius forgoe-d that information and lifted Rose's legs up, setting them in his lap once he sat down, putting his own legs up on the couch right around her, too.

"So how was your day? Anything interesting happen with the girls?"

"Well," Rose began, in a tone that Scorpius immediately knew meant trouble but the kind she was trying not to laugh about, "_your _daughter knocked over everything in the fridge. And then your other daughter hid my wand. And I had to give your _other _daughter a two hour bath because she became covered in purple goop."

Scorpius laughed, Rose eventually joining in.

"Okay, I admit it," Rose said, "it's funny. But I was completely pissed at the time."

Scorpius's eyebrows raised up, his forehead scrunched together. "You were drinking?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "Angry pissed, not hammered pissed. Sometimes I wonder how you were Head Boy."

Scorpius chuckled. "One time, Al was talking about how Percy was Head Boy, and how Fred and George had made the joke that it was because he gave so much head, they had to award him the title. Not an appropriate joke, but I was so shit-faced it was hilarious."

"I remember that…didn't I give you head later that night?"

A satisfied smirk came over Scorpius's face. He leaned back in the couch and put his arms behind his head. "Yeah," he sighed. "First time you did that."

Rose rolled her eyes and leaned over to smack Scorpius lightly on the arm. He didn't even notice; he was too busy staring down her shirt.

Rose saw where his gaze had traveled. "Oi! You'd think that after this many years, you'd have gotten over staring at me inappropriately!"

Scorpius's hands grabbed onto Rose's feet. His hands traveled lightly up her legs. Rose's head fell back when he added his mouth, sucking lightly up her thigh, crouching over her legs. "I will never stop staring at you inappropriately. Have you seen your parents? They don't look at each other any other way!"

"N-not true," Rose gasped. Scorpius had blown air lightly across where he'd just sucked, the skin now cold and wet, goosebumps erupting on her skin. She shivered. It should have been cold, but she just felt hot. Heat searing in her core and making its way down to wear Scorpius's fingers were trailing up her legs, getting dangerously close to where she wanted them the most.

"Oh, fuck it," Rose mumbled, and pulled Scorpius's lips to hers.

_The girls had better not hear us_, Rose thought.

* * *

Rose and Scorpius sat at the kitchen table, having a quiet breakfast. The girls were still asleep in their beds.

Scorpius pulled the newspaper in front of him, the papers crinkling.

Rose giggled.

Scorpius looked up over the top of the newspaper and set his coffee mug down. "What?"

She laughed. "We're so domesticated. Look at us," she waved her hand around to show the actual, healthy breakfast laid out on the table, Scorpius sipping coffee and reading the newspaper, their daughters asleep upstairs.

Scorpius grinned. "I never thought I'd see the day."

Rose smiled and leaned back in her chair, wrapping her bathrobe more tightly around her. "We have Claire and Remus for the week, starting tomorrow, don't forget."

"Ah, yes, Teddy's and Victoire's 're-connecting' vacation."

Rose chucked a pastry at his head.

Scorpius didn't duck in time. "What were you saying about being domesticated?"

Rose stuck her tongue out at him.

"Very mature."

"It's not a 're-connecting' vacation," Rose said, steering them back into the conversation. "They were apart. Now they're back together. And they're going to take some time to be happy together, without anything else to worry about, and just focus on being with each other."

"So they're going to be shagging for another full week."

Scorpius ducked fast enough, this time. The pastry went flying over his head and hit the clock on the wall. "Fine," he amended, "they will be getting to know each other again, while still shagging each other's brains out."

Rose snorted.

"What was that for?"

Rose stifled a giggle.

"Seriously?"

"I'm just picturing our brains falling out of our heads and noses while we shag," Rose laughed.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, we're all grown up, domesticated, and _mature_. Of course, Rose."

Rose just stuck her tongue out at him and threw another pastry.

"Oi! Bloody watch it with those things!"


	37. Chapter 36

**Alright, folks, so this one's kind of a bit educational...my bad. :)**

* * *

"Auntie Rose, can we play with the dolls?" Claire asked eagerly.

"Sure," Rose nodded.

Claire and Mia rushed off to the little bin of dolls in the corner, Kate toddling along after them, still clutching her stuffed dragon.

Rose wondered if she'd take that thing to Hogwarts with her.

Cassie and Remus were upstairs, making a fort off of Cassie's bed, so Rose didn't need to worry about them. They were quieter than their sisters and could spend hours and hours just making that fort.

Rose leaned back on the couch and flipped the page in her book. It was one of those trashy romance novels her mum and Ginny kept stashed in their houses. Rose had borrowed a stack of them. She had been dying for some sort of entertainment. These books, originally meant so that she could laugh at the ridiculous things the characters were saying to each other, were now actually books she wanted to read.

Jesus, she needed to get a hobby.

Scorpius had found one on top of the bedside table a few days earlier. He'd picked it up and looked at the lurid cover drawing, before turning back to her with raised eyebrows. Rose had blushed so badly she was sure her cheeks had matched her hair. Scorpius had just shaken his head and put the book back down, laughing quietly to himself as he went into the bathroom to take a shower.

Now she just gave up hiding them and left them around in plain sight. Probably not a great idea if any of the kids found it, considering four out of the five of them could read, but oh, well.

"Mum?" Kate looked up at Rose from the side of the couch with big, pleading eyes. Uh-oh.

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Will you tell me a stohry?" Rose was still surprised at how much Kate's speaking had improved pretty recently. She was understandable most of the time. Scorpius had finally begun to understand most of what she said, as had everyone else. She was basically speaking in complete sentences, too.

Rose sort of remembered how Hugo hadn't spoke for nearly three years, then all of a sudden everything was in complete sentences. She and Scorpius had wondered if that was what had happened with Cassie – she hadn't spoken for at least two years. They'd begun wondering if she was deaf. But a little after her second birthday, she just started jabbering and talking, on and on. She was still quieter than her other sisters, but not very quiet in this house.

"Sure," Rose said.

Kate climbed up on the couch, into her mum's lap. "Tell me how you and Daddy got together," she demanded. She'd been watching a lot of the movies Cassie liked, recently. All the ones where the princesses got the princes in the end and they lived happily ever after.

Rose almost laughed at Kate's suggestion. There was no way she was telling her daughter that story. She could just imagine it: _Oh yes, and then after months of fighting, not only because I was pregnant with your big sister, he finally asked me to marry him. Of course, Mia was born first, and I had to finish Hogwarts, so we didn't get married until about a year before Cassie was conceived. The End._

"How about I tell you about Grania and Dermot?" Rose suggested, instead.

"Yes!" Kate clapped her hands together in glee. She, especially, loved the old myths of Ireland. Rose had loved all the old myths of just about every culture around the world when she was little. The Irish myths were Kate's favorite. Cassie loved the fairy tales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Mia liked it when either she or Scorpius made up stories. She liked to jump in and add parts to the story, too, when she felt like it.

"Alright, so once upon a time, there lived Dermot. He was the son of the god of love, Angus. Now, do you remember what his father had given him?"

"A love spot on his fohrhad!"

"That's right," Rose nodded. "A love spot on his forehead. And do you remember what it did?"

"Any girl whoh sawr it, fell in love with him. Immediately," she added, nodding gravely.

Rose stifled a laugh. Her daughter sometimes talked in full sentences, sounding much older than her age, and other times in funky lisps. But somehow, she still managed to add in big words like 'immediately'.

"That's right. But Dermot always wore a band around his forehead to cover up the spot. He didn't particularly love this gift, and so he didn't want thousands of women falling in love with him."

"Buht one day he left it off," Kate said.

"Mhmm. It was a really hot day, and so Dermot took the band off. And guess who saw him."

"Grania!"

"Grania saw him from the window in her tower. Now, Grania was supposed to marry the king, Finn MacCool. But she didn't love Finn; she was only fifteen and he was old enough to be her grandfather! Plus, once she saw Dermot and his love spot, she fell immediately in love with Dermot, instead."

Rose looked up to see Mia and Claire, making their way over to listen to the story, too.

"Now, Dermot was Finn's most trusted warrior. So he didn't want to betray Finn and run away with the woman Finn was supposed to marry. Grania had to convince him. Do you remember what she did?"

"She made everyone fall asleep!" Mia piped up.

"Yes she did. She put a sleeping potion in everyone's drinks that night at dinner, except for her drink and Dermot's. Once everyone was asleep, Grania convinced Dermot to run away with her."

"Na-uh," Mia interrupted. "She put a _geas _on him."

"What's a geas?" Claire asked, curious. Victoire told French fairy-tales, so she had never heard the story before. Rose dabbled in everything, often making up stuff as she went along.

"It's like an Unbreakable Vow," Rose explained. "If you put it on someone, they have to fulfill a promise they make to you. If they don't, they can die or become very ill."

"And Grania put a geas on Dermot, saying that he had to run away with her that night," Mia said.

"That's right," Rose nodded. Kate leaned into Rose's chest, putting her thumb in her mouth and beginning to suck on it, while holding her dragon tightly. She was getting tired. "So Grania left by the woman's gate," Rose continued, "while Dermot vaulted over the wall, and by dawn, they were gone."

"Whaht about Finn?" Kate yawned midway through her sentence.

"Well, Finn chased them and chased them, for many years after," Rose said. "Grania and Dermot were on the run for a long time. They kept moving from place to place. Sometimes Finn almost found them, and when that happened, Dermot's father, Angus, often helped them get away. Finally, Finn, Dermot, and Grania became friends again. The End."

Rose decided to leave out the rest of the ending – where Dermot was killed a few weeks later by a poisonous boar, which was supposedly Finn's doing.

"I hope I find my Dermot," Claire swooned.

"Alex is going to be my Dermot," Mia grinned. "He already offered. I didn't even ask him."

"I bet Cassie and Remus would be Grania and Dermot, except they're related," Claire said.

"Let's play Dermot and Grania!" Mia said.

"Fine, I'll be Grania, and you can be Dermot."

"No! You're always Grania."

"I'm older, so I get to be the girl. You have to be the boy."

"I don't want to be the boy!"

"Mum, I wahnt to take a nap," Kate mumbled, close enough to Rose's ear so she could hear her over the arguing of the other two girls. Kate's voice was thick with drowsiness and her eyes drooping.

"Alright, honey, I'll take you upstairs and send your sister and cousin downstairs so you can sleep." Rose picked Kate up and rocked her on the way up the stairs.

These were the moments she loved. Telling stories, holding her daughters, making them laugh, smiling with them. Even the messiness, the crying, the arguing, the shouting, although she'd stop before she hit temper tantrums.

Rose wished Scorpius were home more often so that he could see more of these moments. The pain in the chest grew the more he was absent in the girls' lives. It was growing steadily worse, too.


	38. Chapter 37

Rose sat in the rocking chair in the girls' room, watching over them sleeping. Claire and Mia were in the extra bedroom, sharing the queen size bed. Mia had 'gallantly' given up her bed for Remus to sleep in. That way, Mia and Claire could be together and Remus and Cassie could be together.

Unfortunately, Mia had forgotten about Remus's fear of heights, and Mia's bunk was the top one. Rose had had to convince Cassie to take Mia's bed so that Remus could take Cassie's.

Kate slept on top of her dragon, her bum curled up in the air, thumb in her mouth. Cassie snored lightly. Remus was curled up in a tight ball.

When Rose had last checked in on Mia and Claire, Mia had stolen all the comforters and Claire was practically buried beneath a mound of pillows. Neither one of them were light sleepers, or still sleepers for that matter.

Rose heard the front door open and close.

Must be Scorpius getting home, Rose thought.

But the patronus flying up the stairs to meet her wasn't Scorpius's. It was Al's. "I'm downstairs," it said, before vanishing. A stag, like his father's. James's was a great big dog. Lily's was a terrier, taking after Seamus's. It had recently changed, Rose noted as she made her way down the stairs. Before, Lily's patronus had been dolphin.

Neither Rose's nor Scorpius's patronuses had changed at all. Al told them that it was because they'd already been in love with each other by the time they'd learned how to produce a patronus. Not that either of them had known it at that point.

"Hey, Al," Rose said when she got downstairs. She pulled the sleeves of her sweater down to cover most of her hands. It was strangely chilly downstairs.

Al whirled around from where he'd been facing the family pictures on the wall in the living room. "Hey, Rose. Sorry, I didn't want to come just barreling in here or anything because I figured the girls might be asleep."

"It's alright," Rose nodded. "Did you want to talk to me about something, or did you come to say hi?"

Al made a motion between a shuffle and a shrug.

They ended up sitting on the couch. Rose studied him as he made himself comfortable.

He looked pale. His skin was usually pale, accentuated by the deep black hue of his hair, but this was an even more stark white than normal. He had dark purple smudges beneath his eyes, which were bloodshot. His hair was even more ruffled than James's generally was.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked.

Al gave a derisive snort. "Oh, yes, I'm dandy. Dapper. Fantastic."

"They still haven't found Jessie, have they?"

Al shook his head morosely: no. "Scorpius is working so hard to find her. Everyone else, too, but he's the one who stays the latest every night. At least that's what my dad says. And he doesn't leave until about seven. If he left any later my mum would probably murder him."

Rose knew Scorpius was working hard. He hadn't been home before eight, at the very earliest, any night that week or the one before it. Victoire and Teddy were coming back from their vacation in three days and Scorpius had only seen Claire and Remus a handful of times for the duration that they'd been living with them, so far.

As much as she was grateful for having such a wonderful person for a husband, she sometimes wished he worked less. She knew it was selfish; Scorpius was out there saving people, protecting people. He did good, all day long and, too often, far into the night, whereas Rose entertained the kids all day. No matter how much she loved it, it didn't feel like she was doing as much good as her husband. And because of that, she felt a bit inferior at times.

"They're doing their best," Rose laid a hand on Al's arm.

Al raised his head. His eyes were filled with desperation, melancholy echoing in his mind. "I don't even know if I saw her again, at all," he said. "How do I know what was real and what wasn't? I have all these memories of her, now, but they could've been of Warrington! Bloody hell, Rose, I might've slept with him!"

Rose shuddered.

"Yeah, exactly!" Al said, seeing her reaction. "Did you see the guy? He was nasty and hairy and had moles all over his body! I don't want to sleep with someone like him!"

Rose laughed.

Al's mouth quirked up in a wry grin, before it sobered up again. "I really liked the idea of being with her again. It had to have been her. It had to," Al pleaded, not with Rose, but with himself. Or some greater being he might've believe in.

"Do you love her?" The question took Rose by surprise; she hadn't intended for it to tumble out of her mouth like that.

"Yeah," Al sighed after a pause. "At least, I thought I did. And then she became bitchy. She became the 'Hufflepuff Without A Heart". Now, I'm just hoping that was Warrington."

"I think Jessie was definitely there for awhile, Al," Rose said. She pulled her cousin close to her, stroking his hair as if he were one of the girls. "When she was there at the Burrow, and for quite awhile after, she was vivacious, charming, happy, funny. Warrington could never have been like that. He wasn't a good enough actor in the end, was he?"

Al shook his head no.

"Then he never would've been able to pull it off then, especially surrounded by all those people with such good detective work skills. Or at least extreme nosiness."

Rose coaxed a small laugh out of Albus.

"How about you stay here tonight?" offered Rose. "I'll take the couch and you can take the bed upstairs."

"What about Scorpius?"

Rose shrugged. "Is he coming home tonight?"

Al looked as if his jaw was going to drop.

"Well it's not like I know when he's coming home!" Rose attempted to defend herself.

"You're just mad that he's working so much and not with you and the girls," Al said, only partially accusing her. The other part of him knew that that was at least mostly it, Rose knew. He'd always been very observant.

There was no point in denying it. So Rose nodded. "I'm not mad, per say. Just…something."

"I'll take the couch," Al said, when it was clear that part of the conversation was going no further. "I don't want to be in that bed, anyways." He shivered. "God only knows what you've done in it."

"Oh, Al," Rose said as she stood up. She started to walk upstairs to the linen closet where all the sheets were so she could start making the couch up for her cousin. "I don't think God is that creative."


	39. Chapter 38

Scorpius sat hunched over his desk. This was getting ridiculous.

There was nothing he could do at this point. Now, he was just stewing in his own mind.

Jessie, Warrington, Rose, his daughters, his parents, everything, just swirling together in a big mess of chaos in his brain.

He gave in. Scorpius succumbed to his thoughts.

Jessie. She could be anywhere in Morocco. They hadn't yet fallen to the level of calling the Muggle authorities, such as Interpol, to try to track her down. Scorpius had wondered if they should, but that would mean dealing with the many, many questions that would come with tracking her down. Why they were tracking Jessie down, why they were looking for her, was she dangerous, what had she done, etc. Knowing his co-workers, they probably just couldn't come up with a plausible enough explanation without magic. But that didn't lessen the risk that she was dead.

His mother-in-law, Hermione, had mentioned how she'd cursed her parents with memory loss, making them believe that they were other people. It had taken her awhile to track them down, even with tons of Ministry aide behind her. The good thing was that since she'd done the spell so perfectly, they had had no lasting side effects. Unfortunately, they didn't know how well Warrington had cast that spell.

And they didn't know because they weren't getting anymore information out of him. It was as if his mouth had been sealed shut; no more information could leave it.

They were in the middle of tracking down the accomplices Warrington had mentioned. It was almost as if they had known Warrington had sold them out. They'd been gone from every place the aurors had thought to look, so far. Harry and Ron had done most of the searching, not really letting Ginny or Hermione know about it, though. It was like neither of them wanted him away from his wife and kids anymore than he'd already been. They were practically forcing him to take desk work and visit Warrington in Azkaban. They wanted him be with his family rather than travel out to Morocco.

Which brought him to Rose. Oh, God, Rose.

He had barely been home all week. Victoire and Teddy were coming home in a few days and he'd spent about three hours total with all the kids. Not such a great sign.

He could tell Rose was irritated with him for it. He was irritated with himself. He hated not seeing his girls. First he'd been off on that mission, then in and out of the hospital for months, and now he was working constantly. None of that was really conducive to a family life, or keeping a family happy.

And he missed them. It was an aching miss, nestled in his chest. It was throbbing right now. He needed Rose.

Scorpius ran a hand through his hair. He tossed the quill on the desk and leaned back in his chair. He might as well pack up and head home. He wasn't going to get any work done; he missed his family too much.

* * *

It was well after eleven o'clock when Scorpius closed the door behind him in the dark house.

He kicked off his shoes and began plodding his way across the carpet in the living room. Sometimes Rose waited up for him and fell asleep on the couch.

There was a body splayed across the cushions there, but it didn't look much like Rose's. In fact, no one in his house had that color hair…or that messy of hair.

"Al," Scorpius whispered, shaking his best friend's shoulders upon recognition.

"Wuzzgoinon," Al mumbled groggily. He sat up slowly, opening his eyes. "Oh, hey, Scorp."

Scorpius nodded. "Budge over," he said and plopped down in the space Al had just vacated. "What're you doing here? Not that I don't like it when you come over," Scorpius hastened to add. Al just rolled his eyes.

Al shrugged. "Came to talk to Rose. Ended up sleeping over." He squinted at his best mate through the dark, eyes beginning to adjust. "What're you doing coming home this late?"

Scorpius looked away.

_At least he has the decency to look ashamed, _Al thought. "Look, mate," he said out loud, "you've got to stop this. It's tearing Rose apart. She's not even mad; she's just hurt. We both know it's never a good sign when she can't muster up the energy to be angry."

Scorpius sighed and looked back at Al. "I…I know she forgave me. But I still just feel so damn guilty for it all."

"For hitting her?" Al asked uneasily. He was still uncomfortable with the knowledge that Scorpius had ever hit Rose.

"Not only that. Getting Rose pregnant so young. Being away when Cassie was born. Leaving her so many times over the years for missions. Staying late at work all the time. I feel like I'm barely ever there for her. And when I am, I just make a muck of things," Scorpius confessed in a small voice.

"You love her, yeah?"

Scorpius nodded.

"You do your best. Rose doesn't complain, does she?"

Scorpius let out a guffaw. "As if Rose would complain. She has too much pride for that."

"You know her well enough to know when she's upset. We're all trying, Scorpius. And we all fail at it, but I guess that's just life." Al sighed and flopped back on the couch. "I suck at picking the right girls."

"I feel like we should have some booze to drown our sorrows in."

Al chuckled. "Too right you are, mate. Too right."

After finding that booze, they proceeded to drown those sorrows in it.

Scorpius eventually left Al to sleep, once he started talking about how he wondered if he could take part of his heart and put it in Jessie so that she wouldn't be the Hufflepuff Without A Heart anymore.

He crawled into bed upstairs. He reached for Rose, to pull her up next to him, but his arm met empty space.

"Rose?" he mumbled. The alcohol was starting to make his head pound and the room was spinning.

A door slammed shut and Scorpius recognized it as the bathroom door.

"Rose?" he asked again.

"Scorpius?" Someone sat down on the edge of the bed. He felt his wife pull him into her arms. A cool hand stroked his hair. "Have you been drinking?"

Scorpius mumbled incoherently.

"You have," Rose said quietly. She closed her eyes and attempted to summon some sort of strength, but all she felt was a dull ache in her chest.

Rose sunk down into the bed, letting her arms leave her husband, and pulled the covers up around her and Scorpius.

She curled up away from him. The ache in her chest was beginning to throb. A single tear dripped its way out of Rose's eye and fell onto the sheets.

_No, Rose_, she thought. _Crying is for the weak. You can't do it. You are stronger than that. Don't let him know you're upset. You'll deal with this later. Don't think about it now. Just get some sleep, and you'll be awake enough to deal with this rationally tomorrow._

Rose didn't understand that what she was feeling was the beginning of heartbreak.

It was truly ironic, that just in time for Teddy and Victoire to reunite, Rose and Scorpius began to break down.


	40. Chapter 39

Victoire and Teddy had returned and taken Claire and Remus with them.

The girls had held onto their cousins for dear life, all of them practically sobbing when the Lupins had to leave.

Instead of serving a chaotic breakfast, mixed with shouts and hollers, Rose sat by herself at the kitchen table, stirring her hot chocolate and staring at one of the lines on the pieces of wood on the table.

Rose still wasn't sure what the tension was between her and Scorpius, yet. She just knew that her chest felt like it was pulling apart when he didn't look at her, hug her, caress her, love her.

Rose looked up when Scorpius sat down at the table across from her.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" she asked.

Scorpius shook his head. "I took a day off today."

"I'm sure Al will love that. Skiving off on finding Jessie."

Scorpius grabbed Rose's hand across the table. She looked up at him. "We obviously need to talk. So let's talk. I don't have to go to work. The girls are all at school and they're not going to need to be picked up for awhile. So let's just get it all out in the open, okay?" Scorpius was hoping that by talking they would fix everything. Unlikely, but he was hoping.

Rose's eyes were wide, but she nodded. "Fine." She tried to demurely take a sip of her hot chocolate, but her hands shook. It felt weird to her. They didn't talk about their feelings. They felt them, then ignored them. At least, she did. Scorpius tended to flip back and forth.

"You're upset with me. Why?" Scorpius asked, even though he had a pretty good idea.

Rose fiddled with the spoon in her mug. "You're never here," she admitted. "I feel like we're taking a backseat to everything else. To being an auror, to saving Jessie, to everything. I feel like you don't care enough to come anymore. You don't send an owl or a patronus, letting me know, you just show up at home in the middle of the night and expect me to be waiting up for you."

"You usually _are _up waiting for me," Scorpius pointed out. He knew the second he said it that that was exactly the wrong thing to say.

Rose's eyes narrowed. "Don't expect it anymore." Her voice was cold as ice.

"No, Rose, I didn't mean it like that," Scorpius practically pleaded.

Neither one of them said anything for awhile.

Finally, Scorpius broke the silence. "I feel guilty," he said. "I feel so guilty it's hard to be around you, to be reminded of all the guilt I feel." But I need you, he added silently.

"I'm supposed to be here to ease the guilt," Rose reminded him.

"I know, but…I still feel guilty for not being here when Cassie was born. For getting you pregnant so young. For staying so late at the Ministry. For being gone on missions during so many important things. For leaving you alone so much."

"It's hard to get the feeling that you feel bad when you show up in our bed at three in the morning, so drunk you're incoherent and swaying while lying down." Rose knew she was snapping, but she couldn't come to care at that moment.

Scorpius couldn't think of anything to say. He hadn't even seen her enough recently to have a good comeback to anything of what she was throwing at him. That was how he knew he deserved to lose this argument. There wasn't any point in putting up a fight anymore. He'd lost and he'd deserved to lose.

"How do I even know you're actually at work?" Rose murmured. "You could be off in a bar, getting piss drunk like it seemed like you were doing last night. Or you could be meeting up with people or _anything_. And the fact that you don't even bother to make an excuse, makes me feel worthless."

Without looking at Scorpius, Rose picked up her dishes and put them in the sink. She exited the house without another word.

Scorpius was left gaping after her. Rose had finally admitted her feelings. She had sucked up her pride. It meant she was feeling broken inside. He had to fix this somehow.

* * *

_Gross, gross, ew, yucky, _was all Rose could think as she bent over the toilet, spewing her last meal into it.

She fell back away from the toilet and let her head rest against the wall. Her chest heaved with each breath.

Rose could say that she now understood what it meant to worship the porcelain god.

She'd been feeling nauseous a lot recently, but this was the first time she'd actually thrown up. Well, the first day. Every time she'd put something in her mouth all day it had come back up. Breakfast, a little snack. Everything.

Maybe it had something to do with fighting with Scorpius. If she could even call that a fight.

Rose got up and rinsed her mouth thoroughly. She hated throwing up. It had to be one of her least favorite things. Ever.

She'd hated it when she'd been pregnant with Mia, Cassie, and Kate. Mia had been the worst, though.

Rose paused as she grabbed a pair of pants and shirt out of the armoire. She couldn't be…could she?

No, Rose shook her head.

She pulled the shirt on over her head and pulled the pants up.

Huh. Had she gotten fatter? It sure felt like she'd gained some weight.

_Shit_, Rose thought. The button on her shorts wouldn't go through the hole.

She lay on the bed and sucked her stomach in. _Come on, come on, _she thought.

It wouldn't go.

Rose let out an exasperated groan.

It just wasn't her day, wasn't it? She has a fight with Scorpius, he doesn't come after her when she leaves the house – something he knows he has to do because otherwise they'll never solve anything and they'll be mad at each other for weeks and hold terrible grudges, she throws up everything she ate that day, and now she can't get into her shorts and she needed to pick the girls up from school soon.

Just her luck.

"Scorpius?" Rose called.

"Yeah?" Scorpius came into their bedroom from the hallway. He'd already been on his way up when Rose had called him.

"Can you pick up the girls?"

"Uh, sure," he said, staring at her curiously. "Why are you lying out on the bed like that?"

"Because my stupid shorts won't button," Rose growled angrily and tried to button the shorts again.

"You don't look fat," Scorpius frowned.

"Gee, thanks."

Scorpius knelt down next to Rose on the bed and rested his hands on her stomach. They moved lightly over her skin, creating little ripples of pleasure of her abdomen.

She was torn: half of her wanted to send Scorpius flying across the room. The other half wanted to pull him right to her lips, getting one of those soul-searing, fiery kisses that always brought heat to her veins.

The frown didn't leave Scorpius's face as his hands continued to touch her. "You don't feel _fat_. If you were fat, it'd be like right after the girls, and the skin was all wobbly. This feels pretty firm. Maybe you just got better ab muscles?" he said hopefully.

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Rose…" Scorpius's voice was pleading.

She looked up at him.

He didn't have to say anything. The uncomfortable desperation and regret in his eyes spoke enough for the both of them.

Rose lifted her hand and rested it on his cheek. Her thumb stroked it thoughtfully, lovingly. "I know, Scorp," she said. "I'm not sure why I'm feeling this way. I really don't know. I mean," she let her hand drop to her side as Scorpius wrapped his arms around her, "it's not like you didn't work late before." She took a breath and paused for a moment. "I think it might be that, well, since you got hit with that curse, I'm constantly worried about you. And then when you don't come home, it feels like you just disappeared and you might not come back."

Rose averted her eyes from her husband's face.

His arms tightened around her reflexively as she did so.

"I can't promise I'm going to come home," Scorpius said. His voice shook, and Rose knew they were both remembering all that time Scorpius had spent in St. Mungo's. "We knew that when I signed on for the job."

Rose scoffed.

"Okay, you've grown up with that all your life," Scorpius amended, thinking of Ron. "But I'll owl you or something to tell you that I'm staying late or where I am so you don't worry. So long as you do the same."

"Okay," Rose agreed.

Scorpius blew out a breath of relief. He'd been just as worried that she would get into trouble as she was about him never coming home.

"I've missed you," Scorpius said. He pulled Rose into a hug and wrapped his arms tightly around her. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, pressing his lips lightly to the sensitive skin there once Rose hugged him back.

Her startled gasp sent a shiver down his spine.

There was no way he was letting her leave this room, this bed, anytime soon.

* * *

**So, this chapter, like the last one, was just kind of a set up. But it's getting there, I promise, haha. Review, please!**


	41. Chapter 40

Hermione peered curiously at her daughter.

"Are you feeling alright?" she asked.

Rose rolled her eyes and sunk onto the couch in her childhood home. It was a comforting space, the den. A room filled to the ceiling with towering bookshelves, stacks and stacks of books piled into them, three deep. It had the couch and a few comfy chairs that she used to sink into and curl up in with a book for an entire weekend, sometimes. She used to hide away in this room all the time. It had been quiet, peaceful, a haven and respite from the usual hectic surroundings in the house.

"I've been feeling kind of nauseous lately," Rose admitted. "And I think I gained a little bit of weight." She grumbled. "I feel fat."

Hermione chuckled and took a sip of her tea. She set it delicately down on the saucer on the coffee table, but not before making sure there was a coaster there. "You sound pregnant."

"Oh, shit," Rose said. She looked pleadingly at her mum, who looked back at her with a disapproving gaze; Hermione had never approved of swearing. "I think I'm cursed with extreme fertility. Is there a cure?"

"How would I know? I'm not a healer. But other people would feel blessed to be able to have as many children as you've had."

"I might not be pregnant," Rose pointed out. "It's just a theory of yours."

"And her theories are so often wrong," Ron said sarcastically, entering into the den, having heard the last few words of the conversation. He turned to Rose. "Scorpius is in Morocco with James and Harry, right now. I'm headed there myself in a few minutes. They've found Jessie."

* * *

"Who are you people?" the woman screamed. "I don't know any Jessica Bones! My name is Haley Summers! I grew up in Miami, Florida in the United States."

Scorpius ran a hand through his hair. "Any of you gifted with a Memory Charm?" he said out of the corner of his mouth to James, Harry, and Ron.

"Nope," James said regretfully.

Both Harry and Ron visibly shivered. "Remember Lockhart?" Harry said to Ron.

Unfortunately, as discreet as Scorpius had tried to be, Jessie had still heard him. "What's a Memory Charm?" she demanded. She stared at the four of them curiously. She was already frightened, that much was obvious. She was outnumbered in an alleyway in Marrakech, Morocco by four pretty muscular men, all who towered over her.

Jessie narrowed her eyes. "Did you break out from an asylum? The one down the road? Oh, God, I feel like I'm that gas station attendant talking to McMurphy," she moaned to herself.

Harry, Ron, and James glanced at each other in bewilderment.

"_One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,_" Scorpius explained to them. "It's a Muggle American novel. A very famous one."

"Oh," they nodded, still not comprehending the reference. Not that it mattered, anyways.

"Alright," Harry said. "Time to call in the reinforcements."

The Obliviator arrived within fifteen minutes.

In another fifteen minutes, Chekov was done, reversing the charms, including the reverse Memory Charm, and Jessie was staring at them with wide eyes.

She noticed Harry and James, but not Al. "Where is he?" she asked. "Where's Al?"

James stepped up to her and rubbed her back lightly. She sank gratefully into him. James was treating Jessie like a little sister, already.

"He's at home. He didn't know we were coming here today. But you've got to come with us to the Ministry to see if you remember what happened," James explained.

Jessie's forehead scrunched in a line. "What _did _happen? I don't remember anything." She stared off into the azul sky, behind the men who'd come to save her. Her eyes were darting back and forth across it, as if searching mentally for the memories in a filing system.

Harry sent off a patronus to his youngest son. Even if Jessie may not be in a state to see Al, they both desperately needed to see each other.

Harry had watched as his youngest son had been pulled in. For once, Al had seemed absolutely happy. Jessie had made him laugh, made him smile, made him joke and live without a weight on his shoulders. _She_ had made him happy. He wasn't going to let some old Death Eater-like crony destroy his son's chance at happiness.

* * *

Scorpius sat on the examination table while Rose stood to the side, holding his hand.

They were waiting for Healer Lottson to come in and check-up on Scorpius and how his health was progressing after the curse.

Rose rubbed her thumb across the back of Scorpius's hand comfortingly. "You know you're fine," she said.

Scorpius nodded. He'd come to hate St. Mungo's. Just being in there gave him a jittery, nervous feeling. It almost felt like claustrophobia, like all the white, white walls were closing in on him, the white, white floors coming up to meet the white, white ceiling. The hospital was a white prison.

There was a knock at the door and Healer Lottson came in not seconds after. "Ah, hello Scorpius, Rose," he nodded at each of them.

"Hello," Rose replied pleasantly. "How are you today?"

"Not bad, not bad," Lottson replied. He flipped open the manilla folder, labeled Malfoy, Scorpius, on the examination table next to Scorp. "How have you been feeling?" Lottson asked him.

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. "I'm alright. I've been a little sore in the abdomen and chest. I can't lift the girls up onto my back or shoulders as easily and when I can, they can't stay up there for long. I sometimes get random pains there when I move too fast." Scorpius glanced guiltily at Rose, who was half-glaring at him, with the other half of her face just looking worried. He hadn't told her he'd been in pain for a reason.

"That's pretty normal," Lottson nodded. "Lift up your shirt and we'll take a look at the wound."

Scorpius lifted his shirt up to reveal a nasty purple, puckered scar across his abdomen.

Rose had tried to avoid looking at it too directly, but now it was thrust in her face. She shivered. It still pulled at her heartstrings to realize how close she'd been to losing him. She didn't ever want to feel that way again.

Lottson traced the scar and the skin around it, ignoring the hiss that came out of Scorpius's mouth as he did so.

"It seems to be progressing along nicely," Lottson determined, scrawling something down on the chart in the folder. "It's usual to have a little bit of scar tissue around there and the feeling might come back, but it may not as well. You organs look to be doing well, but you appear to have lost quite a bit of weight." Lottson frowned at Scorpius over the tops of his glasses. Scorpius looked a little guilty, but not much. "You'll need to gain at least some of that weight back," Lottson continued, "and ease up on the physical activity for a bit. You're still not back to full strength and you don't want to cause any permanent damage before it's healed."

"Oh yeah, cause this isn't permanent," Scorpius muttered under his breath. Lottson hadn't heard him, but Rose had.

She slipped her hand back into his and squeezed it lightly.

"We had an accident on the Spell Damage floor," Lottson said, "and now no magic works in this section of the hospital, so I'll have to take a sample of blood the muggle way, if you don't mind."

Scorpius snorted. "Does it matter if I mind?"

Lottson grinned. "Not really."

He pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a wad of gauze. The second he unscrewed the top, the smell hit Rose's nostrils full force.

She gagged. The alcohol was turning her stomach. Oh, god, it was coming up.

Rose tried to run out of the room, make it to the bathroom. But she didn't get there.

Instead, she vomited up her lunch on the floor in the doctor's office, Lottson standing just next to her, looking at the mess now on his shoes, disgusted.

* * *

Rose sat waiting for her test results. _Her _results, not Scorpius's.

Lottson had sent her down to another wing of the hospital to get tests done because he didn't seem to agree with her point that rubbing alcohol always makes her nauseous.

Scorpius had tried rubbing her back to calm her down, but he'd been laughing at her at the same time, so it hadn't really worked.

Rose just felt bad that because of that accident on Spell Damage, Lottson couldn't use magic to clean up his clothes or the floor. He'd had to call maintenance and would probably have to send his clothes out for dry cleaning. And probably throw those shoes out.

"Ah, Mrs. Malfoy," an older woman bustled into the room, rifling through a folder. She smiled at Rose and sat down across from her. "I have your test results back. Don't worry, you're not sick. You're pregnant."


	42. Chapter 41

**Another short chapter, sorry! They'll be getting longer again, soon, though.**

* * *

Rose had told Scorpius to meet her at home, so she found him seated at the kitchen table, a mug of tea in front of him when she got there. His head was lolled back, mouth open, and a bit of drool on his lips as he snored loudly.

Rose snickered. She dropped her bag by the side of the table and flopped into the seat across from her husband.

The sound of her heavy bag hitting the floor woke Scorpius up.

"Wha-?" he mumbled as his eyes fluttered open.

"Did I wake you up?" Rose asked sweetly. Her voice was too laced with honey for her to be sincere, something Scorpius noticed immediately.

Scorpius adjusted himself, waking up more thoroughly. "What'd the doc say?"

Rose narrowed her eyes, though not really mad at him. "You knocked me up again." She reached across the table and shoved his shoulder.

Scorpius laughed. "Maybe we do have fertility problems."

Rose laughed with him, but they both sobered up pretty soon after.

"We're going to have another kid," Scorpius said. He eyed Rose carefully. "Are you going to start hitting me and crying like you did with Mia?"

"No," Rose said scornfully. "I'd like to think I've grown up since then."

They were silent for a few more moments.

"We've never really talked about having another kid," Rose said, finally. "I always figured we were done after Kate. It's not like we actually planned on any of them."

Scorpius nodded. "Just think, though, Rose. Another little baby to hold, hearing their first laugh, watching them beginning to crawl and seeing as they start to grow up again."

"The mess, the crying, the throwing up, the fact that they're constantly attached to my tits," Rose finished, using the words she knew Scorpius wouldn't. He romanticized having children much more than she did. Probably because he didn't have to get fat and irritable and then go through the pain of actually _having _them.

"You're determined to see the bad parts," Scorpius said. "Just think about it for a little bit, and then you'll be happy about it."

Scorpius stood up from the table and leaned over to plant a feather-light kiss on his wife's forehead. He left the room quietly, leaving Rose to brood in peace.

* * *

Sometime in the night, Scorpius reached over in the bed, his arm flinging against the pillow, hitting empty space. He sat up. Where was Rose?

There was a thud down the hall.

Scorpius was instantly alert. He grabbed his wand.

Silent steps down the hallway led him to the guest bedroom at the end.

Scorpius peered cautiously around the corner into the room. He cursed himself for having become so paranoid.

Especially because his paranoia was unfounded.

Rose was sitting beside a box on the floor.

Scorpius picked his way over to her and sat down next to her. Rose didn't look up when she felt him sit down beside her.

Rose pulled a little onesie out of the box. "Look," she gestured to Scorpius. "I can't believe any of the girls were ever this tiny."

Scorpius took the piece of clothing from her, inspecting the 'Drama Queen' label. Must've been a gift from Victoire. It would've fit Mia perfectly, not only in size.

Scorpius smirked lightly to himself. She was starting to like the idea of having another baby. Or at least she was becoming accustomed to it.

"There's no way we'll be able to fit another baby into the room with the girls," Rose said.

"We can use this room," Scorpius said. "Stick Mia and Cassie in here and keep Kate and the baby in there. Or the other way around."

Rose sighed. "Do you think Kate would be able to sleep without them in the room with her? You know how much safer she feels with them there."

Scorpius nodded. Kate liked feeling protected and safe. While, like Mia, she was very headstrong and not waiting for her Prince Charming to rescue her like Cassie, Kate felt safer with her big sisters, her dragon, or her parents. It was just a simple fact. She enjoyed sprinting away in bounding leaps from her family, but she always came back.

Unlike Mia, in that sense, Scorpius knew. Mia ran headfirst into everything, regardless of the consequences. One day, she'd run off and move out, and they'd lose her just a little bit. It was probably along the lines of what had happened with Rose and Hugo for Ron and Hermione. Their kids had run into adulthood, just like Mia was bound to. Cassie would most likely gradually dance into it, nervous. Kate, well, Scorpius figured she would always be coming back to her parents for advice.

"We'll figure it out when the time comes," Scorpius reassured Rose, wrapping his arm around her. "We don't have to figure this out right away."

Rose nodded. "Okay," she yawned.

"C'mon," Scorpius stood up and pulled Rose with him. "Let's get some sleep. I don't know about you, but I'm going to need it. We're questioning Jessie tomorrow to see if she knows anything; if they were being careless or something and let any information slip while she was there."

Rose nodded sleepily against her husband's shoulder. "I'm sorry for being such a brat," she mumbled, her voice coated with exhaustion.

Scorpius slowly toted her back to their room. "You weren't a brat. I deserved it. I haven't been here and I haven't filled you in on everything I should've. I did let all of you take a backseat, and that shouldn't happen."

He laid her gently down on her side of the bed, pulling the comforters up over her body. Scorpius crawled in next to her and pulled Rose to him. "I promise I'm never going to make you feel worthless again."

A gentle snore reached his ears. Rose was already asleep.


	43. Chapter 42

"You have to get up, Rose," Scorpius shook her gently, and futilely. He knew it wouldn't wake her up after so many years of experience, but he'd hoped.

Sighing, Scorpius crawled back into the bed and snuggled up against the length of his wife's body. "Rose," he whispered in her ear.

She shivered slightly and Scorpius grinned to himself. He blew cold air on her neck. She jumped violently with a loud "Ahhhh!"

Rose fell off the bed and landed with an "oomf!"

Scorpius smiled sweetly down at her. "Good morning." His smile instantly disappeared as he realized that she was pregnant and he could've seriously hurt her, or the baby, by doing that.

Rose didn't seem to notice, though. Instead, she held up her hand and gave her husband the universal sign for "bugger off".

"I just wanted to wish you a good morning," he said innocently.

Rose scoffed as she stood, pulling herself and her tangle of blankets up off the floor. "Yeah, and I'm Gwenog Jones."

Scorpius made a face. "She's, er, kinda old. Not that she wasn't great in her day," he added hastily. "But she's older than my mother."

Rose rolled her eyes and began to get dressed.

Scorpius leaned back in the bed and watched as Rose moved around, picking up clothes, running a brush through her tangled curls. He loved watching her get dressed, get ready in the morning.

Although, he admittedly loved watching her get undressed _way _more. Honestly, he just loved watching her.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Rose asked, digging through the clean clothes in the laundry basket. Both she and Scorpius were terrible at putting away the clothes after they'd been washed. Rose had already put 'doing laundry' on the girls' future chores list. Too bad Rose didn't really want her daughters to see all of the things she needed washed…

"We're going over to the Burrow, remember? It's Sunday," Scorpius reminded her.

Oh. Right. Rose remembered now. How could she not? Every Sunday, Molly invited everyone over for brunch (read: made everyone come over for brunch).

"I'll go wake the girls up." Rose started towards the girls' room but a hand curled in a loophole on her jeans stopped her.

"Let them sleep awhile," Scorpius said. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

Rose sat down cautiously on the edge of the bed. It usually wasn't good news when Scorpius wanted to 'talk to her'.

Scorpius rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Al's going to take Jessie home tomorrow. We have to go through a ton of paperwork and shit like that. But I was hoping it'd be alright if she and Al stayed here for awhile."

"What are we, King's Cross?" Rose joked.

"Really, though?" Scorpius asked.

"It's honestly fine," Rose said. "Are you sure she and Al are really going to want to stay here, though? Don't you think they'll want to be at their own flat, be by themselves?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Al asked. I dunno why, but he did."

Rose shrugged, too. If he wanted to thrust himself and his traumatized girlfriend into a chaotic house with three little girls, then that was his business. "It's fine by me if they want to stay here for awhile, but it might be a good idea if we make it seem like we don't want them, so Jessie has a chance to convince Al she just wants to move back in with him, if that's what she wants," Rose said. "I can't exactly see her being all excited about living with us."

Scorpius shifted. "That's not exactly why I wanted to ask you that."

Rose raised her eyebrows.

"I mean," Scorpius clarified, "you're going to start showing soon, right? And I didn't know if you'd want to play hostess while you're puking, exhausted, and irritable."

Rose gave him a dry look.

"I meant beautiful, glowing, and sublime."

"That's what I thought." Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Now that he mentioned it, Rose knew she didn't really want to have people over while she was pregnant. If it were just Al, then that'd be fine. But Jessie…

Though it's not as if Rose could say Al could stay, but he'd have to leave Jessie at home. Especially after such an experience. Being around normal, crazy families might actually have a good impact on her. Get her back to normal, maybe. Assuming she was feeling the aftereffects or whatever they were called.

"They can stay," Rose said finally.

Scorpius nodded. "Then we've got to get ourselves to the Burrow."

Rose groaned and fell back on the bed. "Can we just stay here?"

"You want me to explain to your dad that you're too tired to come because I knocked you up again?"

Rose bolted upright. "Time to go!"

* * *

Rose leaned back in the cushy arm chair and sighed. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, her hair fanned over the top of the chair. It was too loud in the room to get any sort of peace and quiet, but sitting down was making her feel a little bit better.

Everyone kept running around, screaming, shouting, laughing, arguing. It was driving Rose insane. Usually, she'd be a part of it. She loved the chaos, loved the noise. But right then, she just wanted to go back to bed and sleep for another fourteen hours.

"Mahma?"

Rose quirked open her eyes to see her youngest daughter looking up at her, pulling on the leg of her jeans.

"Yeah, honey?"

"I wahnt to cuhddle."

Rose lifted Kate up and pulled her into her arms, moving so she and Kate could fit comfortably together.

Kate snuggled up against her mother, tucking her head into Rose's side.

"Are you tired, Kates?"

Kate shook her head. Rose fought a grin. Kate hated sleeping when there was action going on. She never wanted to miss anything; just like Mia, in that sense.

It was peaceful, serene, sitting there with Kate.

Until a scream ripped through the still air of the Burrow.

"Oh my god! My water broke!"

Uh-oh.

* * *

Rose sat with Kate on her lap, still, but this time the location had changed. The entire Weasley family (and all names associated and now attached with it, including Dominique and Thomas, back from their honeymoon) was crowded into the maternity ward waiting room in St. Mungo's.

Callie's water had finally broken, two weeks after her due date. She and James had been anxoius bundles of nerves, wound tightly, just waiting for this moment.

Now that it had come, they had freaked out. Callie had screamed, which Rose could absolutely understand. Childbirth was no picnic. It hurt like a motherfucker. She'd gone through it three times and wasn't exactly looking forward to going through it a fourth.

Callie's freak-out was justified. Rose wasn't quite so sure about James almost fainting. It had been entertaining, at least, to see the man who basically amounted to her older brother just about pass out.

Uch. Rose wrinkled her nose. She hated the smell of rubbing alcohol. It was turning her stomach. It reminded her of how that smell had hit her nostrils only a little while ago, causing her to throw up and find out she was pregnant in the first place.

Rose's stomach churned. Oh, shit. It was going to come up.

Rose thrust Kate into Scorpius's lap and bolted away from the crowd of her family, ignoring the calls of, "Rose! Rose, where are you going?" that echoed behind her.

She threw up in a storage closet.

Well, with the rate she was going, she wouldn't need to tell her family. They would already know.

* * *

James walked into the waiting room, cradling a little bundle in his arms.

Ginny saw him first. She hit her husband's arm roughly. Harry woke up with a start.

Rose had seen Ginny's reaction. She glanced up at James and hit her own husband. Similar occurrences were taking place all over the waiting room.

"Harry Albus Potter," James beamed.

Rose's head snapped over to Harry and Al, sitting side by side. Harry was trying to conceal the pride on his face at his son becoming a father, but he had absolutely no luck hiding the tear at the edge of his eyes showing how touched he felt at his grandson's name.

Al just sat there, looking completely stunned, but equally touched as his father.

They were an emotional bunch.

* * *

"Mia, stop it!" Cassie shrieked.

Rose sighed. Mia was splashing Cassie, something Cassie did not appreciate, apparently.

There was water all over the bathroom. It was two in the morning. Because of Callie suddenly going into labor, everyone had rushed to St. Mungo's and waited until she'd given birth to little Harry Albus Potter. A very quick birth, at least.

All Rose wanted to do was curl up into bed. She was strangely awake at the same time, though. Probably just overtired.

Scorpius walked into the bathroom, the stern-father look on his face. Mia and Cassie immediately cowered. Thank goodness Kate was already in bed, asleep. She probably would've burst into tears the second she saw her dad's face.

Rose had had to cast a silencing charm around the bathroom to ensure that Kate stayed asleep, especially with all the racket her other two daughters were making.

"Are you two clean?" Scorpius asked.

Mia and Cassie nodded.

"Then get to bed. I'll read you a story and then you're going to go to sleep"

Rose was still in awe of Scorpius's 'I'm-your-father-and-you-will-listen-to-me' voice. She still couldn't believe he had one, really.

But Mia and Cassie nodded and climbed out of the bathtub.

Ten minutes later, Rose was in the bathtub, soaking in the deliciously hot water as Scorpius read to the girls.

Rose sunk farther down into the bath. Her head leaned back against the edge of the tub.

This was the kind of relaxation she needed more often. It was peaceful, quiet, and soothing.

But that didn't stop Scorpius from disrupting it.

Rose heard the door close behind him as he stepped in. She opened her eyes and saw him shedding his own clothes.

Rose slid forward in the bath and felt Scorpius slip in behind her.

"We're reduced to sharing a bath now?" she asked, teasing. "I mean, gosh, I knew we were having trouble paying the bills, but I didn't think the water bill was so bad we couldn't have our own baths."

"Oh ha ha," Scorpius drawled. Rose knew he was rolling his eyes. "Maybe I just wanted to be with you." She knew he was smirking, then, too, as his hands wrapped around Rose and pulled her back into him, sloshing water over the edge of the tub and onto the floor. His hands wandered and had Rose's breaths coming in shallow pants.

"Is sharing a bath such a bad thing, now?"

"N-no," Rose panted.

"I thought so."


	44. Chapter 43

Rose scrunched up her face. Something tasted off about this food…

But Ginny's food was never off. She was a pretty good cook. Especially when they were all over her house for dinner; she tried extra hard, then.

Rose leaned over to her mum on the other side of her. "Does this taste kind of funky to you?" she whispered to Hermione.

Hermione gave Rose a funny glance. "No," she said slowly. "It tastes fine. Good, even." Hermione glanced over Rose's appearance. "Are you feeling alright?" She raised a hand to her daughter's forehead.

Rose batted the hand away lightly. "I'm fine, Mum."

"Is Mummy sick, Nana?" Cassie asked, crawling into Hermione's lap and staring worriedly at her own mum.

"I don't think so, sweetie."

Rose rolled her eyes and turned away. Now, everyone else at the table was staring at her, as well.

"Are you feeling alright, Rose?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine," Rose said. "Just, ah…never mind." Rose didn't want to hurt Ginny's feelings by saying the food tasted bad. It was just missing something.

"Does the food taste kind of off?" Ginny asked. Rose could swear there was a twinkle in her eye.

Rose nodded slowly. "Just a little bit."

"Sorry," she apologized, "I didn't take as much time as usual with it. I was in a bit of a hurry." She took a moment to glare at her daughter, who had come over early to 'help' which had turned into 'catch up'. Lily just grinned and took a bite of her mashed potatoes.

"No, no, it's just…" Rose said but trailed off. What was it missing?

Rose waved her wand and a tub of black raspberry ice cream flew towards her. She put three generous dollops on her piece of steak and then on her green beans. She banished the dessert back to the freezer before taking a bite of her food. Much better.

Ignoring the incredulous looks on everyone's faces, she continued eating.

She looked up when she noticed that everyone had stopped speaking.

"Uh…Rose...honey..." Hermione began, but Ron cut her off.

"You owe me five galleons!" he crowed to Harry, hooting and hollering.

Harry grumbled and dug into his pockets.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?" Ron clarified.

Rose glanced at Scorpius. "Yeah," she said. "I guess I am."

Ginny made a sound between a snort and a cough. "You guess?"

Callie smirked at Rose from across the table, looking up from baby Harry, where she was attempting to feed him as inconspicuously as possible.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm pregnant."

"Ooh!" Lily squealed. She rushed over to hug her cousin. "Aw, I'm so happy for you."

Seamus shifted awkwardly in his seat. Rose wanted to laugh at his discomfort. He obviously thought Lily was going to get ideas. Although, Rose thought, considering he was marrying someone so much younger, he'd know that he'd be having more children, most likely, than his two already grown boys, both older than Lily.

Lily saw his discomfort as well. She walked back over to her seat with a smirk on her face. "Oh, Shay, didn't I tell you? I want six kids."

The whole family burst out laughing upon seeing his face and then watching it change when he realized she was kidding. Rose didn't think she'd ever seen so much relief on anyone's face at one time.

Well, she felt pretty damn relieved, too. Nobody had told her she and Scorpius were crazy for four kids.

* * *

"You sure, Al?" Scorpius asked his best friend, sitting across the kitchen table from him.

Al nodded. "Yeah, we just want to be alone for a bit. I think she'll feel less self-conscious at our flat."

Scorpius leaned back. "Makes sense. But if you change your mind, you two can still stay here for however long you want, or need, to."

"Well, now that we know Rose is pregnant, Jessie felt a little uncomfortable barging in, anyways," Al said.

Scorpius scoffed. "We already discussed that part," he grinned at the little triumph. "Rose figured maybe it'd help Jessie to be in a regular crazy household. And she doesn't mind you two staying here in the least. But if you start shagging like crazy all over the place," Scorpius pointed his finger at Al, "then I'm going to have to put my foot down."

Al rolled his eyes. "That's you and Rose, Scorp, not me and Jessie."

"Jessie and I," Scorpius automatically corrected, before looking sheepish and saying, "yeah, that's true."

* * *

Hermione knocked on the door, then just walked in to her daughter's home. She didn't know why she bothered using a door or knocking. But she supposed that even after all these years in the wizarding world, her roots still showed through at moments like these.

"Rose!" she called into the house. It was unusual that it would be this quiet, even in the middle of the day when Mia was at school, Cassie at preschool, Kate at daycare, and Scorpius at work.

Hermione heard the tumbling down the stairs as she sat down on the couch before she saw Rose.

"Hey, Mum," Rose ran a hand through her hair to shoo it out of her face before she hugged Hermione and offered her something to eat or drink.

"No, thanks, honey. I just wanted to stop by and see you."

Rose sank next to her mum on the couch. "Is something wrong? It's not like you to just take a day off of work like this."

"It's my day off, Rose," Hermione smiled. She brushed Rose's hair out of her face as it flopped back in front of her eyes. When had her daughter grown up so much? She saw laugh lines at the corners of Rose's eyes and near her mouth. Sure, they were laugh lines, but they were almost akin to wrinkles.

Although, Hermione had to allow, she'd had crows feet at the corners of her eyes from squinting when she was only nineteen, and her daughter had had laugh lines when she was fifteen. Hermione had always liked that her daughter had laughed and smiled enough to get those lines, rather than getting lines from being worried.

Rose, on the other hand, had never liked those lines all that much. She thought they were 'nasty old wrinkles'.

"And nothing's wrong," said Hermione. "I wanted to see how you were coping with everything."

"Coping?" Rose looked at her mother blankly.

Hermione fought an urge to laugh. Her daughter never wanted to admit when she was having trouble. It was probably one of the reasons why Rose hadn't immediately told them about being pregnant with Mia.

"Albus let it slip what time Scorpius came home a few nights ago. I think he asked his dad what was keeping him there for so long, but I happened to be in the room," Hermione admitted.

She watched as fatigue washed over her daughter's face before she rearranged her features to settle in a neutral expression. "Well, it wasn't that late," Rose started. Then she rolled her eyes and flopped back against the couch. "It was three before he got into bed," she said in a quiet voice. "Al said he came in at eleven, they started talking, and apparently had a party downstairs consuming most of the firewhiskey in the house, judging by empty bottles on the back steps outside that I found when I came downstairs. Plus, he came into our room at three in the morning, completely drunk."

"Was this before or after you knew you were pregnant?" was Hermione's first question. It wasn't the most sensitive way to put it, but she wanted to know whether or not Scorpius thought another child was going to be a burden or a blessing, to use the cliché.

"It was before. And Mum, we already worked it out. It's fine," Rose promised.

"Okay," Hermione sighed and turned away from her daughter, settling into the couch better before looking back. "What else is going on, then? I'm not coming to visit you and only spending five minutes."

Rose smiled and started catching up with her mum. It felt nice to talk to Hermione again. It felt like they hadn't had any mother-daughter time in a long while.

* * *

**I just discovered that I have 150 reviews for this story! Thank you so much for writing all of those reviews! It means a lot that you guys take the time to respond to this story and my writing.**

**Unfortunately, I won't be updating much in August, but I'll be back in September and I'll update in a few days, too, before the month ends.**

**Please review!**


	45. Chapter 44

Scorpius sat across from his father at a table in the very far back corner in the Leaky Cauldron. He took a sip from his butterbeer as Draco continued to pore over the case file, detailing the whole Warrington-Ophiuchus-etc. situation.

"They found that girl?" Draco asked, closing the file with a careless flick of his hand.

Scorpius nodded. "Albus's girlfriend, Jessie Bones." Sometimes, no matter how great of a father Draco was, he annoyed Scorpius all to hell with the way he was so carelessly indifferent.

"And why are you showing me this?"

"Because you need to change your will, as fast as you can."

Draco raised his eyebrows languidly and Scorpius knew he was not in the mood to deal with anyone or anything. Draco took a sip of his firewhiskey, eyeing his son over the edge of the glass.

Scorpius wanted to squirm, but he made himself stay still. What he wouldn't give for something harder than a butterbeer, but he still felt awkward drinking in front of his parents, even though he was actually legal. It just reminded him of the many times through the years he'd snuck into the liquor cabinet in the dining room, stealing whatever he could and bringing it back to Hogwarts with him.

"You want me to change my will?"

"I believe that was what I said," Scorpius grit his teeth.

Draco grinned. He'd always enjoyed angering people, particularly his son. Scorpius had always just been so easily riled. Of course, Draco supposed that Scorpius had gotten that trait from him. Astoria was too calm and patient. She dealt with the two of them well.

"Alright," Draco said. "I'll change the will. I've already begun the process, anyways. It'll state that once you die, your children will each get an equal share of everything."

Scorpius cleared his throat. He should probably mention that Rose was pregnant again.

Draco glanced up at him. A smirk crossed his face. "Don't tell me, you knocked her up again, didn't you?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. Damn it, he thought; he reached across the table and took his father's firewhiskey. He was really feeling the need for it.

Draco laughed. "You did! Do I actually need to change the will, now?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Too early to tell. It's safer to just change the will. Looking at the history, a boy is a little less likely than a girl."

"Why don't the five of you come over for dinner tomorrow night? That way you can share the happy news with your mother."

"You don't want to tell her?"

"Oh, I will. But she's going to want to fawn over Rose. You might as well get it over with now."

"I guess. We'll come over tomorrow, then," Scorpius agreed. Rose was going to kill him. She hated going to his childhood home; she always said it gave him the creeps.

* * *

"Jesus this place gives me the creeps," Rose muttered under her breath, holding tightly to Kate's hand.

She saw Scorpius grin as she said that in the mirror hitched up on the ornate wallpaper-covered wall.

Malfoy Manor really did give her the creeps. Her parents still refused to ever set foot in there, and for good reason. Every time she went in there, all she heard was her father, screaming for her mother. She kept seeing her mother writhing in pain on the floor in the parlor at the end of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand, even though the room was boarded up and no one ever went in there. Just passing by the room gave her those mental images and sounds, along with the shivers.

Even when Rose managed to successfully block out those sounds and images she (re)created, she just wondered what other horrors had happened there, what other travesties had occurred.

She had no idea how on earth Scorpius had spent his childhood in Malfoy Manor, how Draco had managed to continue to live there when he had witnessed, even participated in, those terrible events.

"I hate coming here," Rose mumbled, lifting Kate up into her arms as she reached for her mum.

Scorpius took Kate out of Rose's arms. "You can't carry her now, you know." Rose grumbled as her youngest left her hold.

"Now that I'm gohnna have a baby?" Kate asked eagerly.

Scorpius chuckled. "Your mum is gonna have a baby, not you."

"But I'm gohnna be a big sister!" Kate's wide grin split her face, making Rose smile, herself. They'd created her, that beautiful little girl sitting in Scorpius's arms, as well as the other two girls who'd raced ahead to their grandmother, already. She took a deep breath. They could do this. They could have another child, and they'd raise that one just as well as they'd done and were doing with the other three.

"Oh, there you are!" Astoria exclaimed when they finally reached the sitting room at the back of the house. She set her tea cup on a coaster on the coffee table before rising from the pristine sofa and hugging her son and daughter-in-law. "Hello, Miss Kate, how are you today?"

"Grammy!" Kate exclaimed, reaching for Astoria who took her with practiced ease. "I'm gohnna be a big sister!"

Astoria raised her eyebrows at her son and Rose, her own practiced smile on her face. "Is that so?"

"Of course it is, Grammy," Mia interrupted from the couch, taking another cookie, "why would she say it was true if it wasn't?"

"People lie, Mia," Cassie said with an air of superiority. "You're being stoopid if you think everyone is great." She spoke slowly, with careful articulation. Hermione had been attempting to get her grandchildren to speak in more 'posh' accents, rather than a country ramble like her husband, daughter, and son had.

"It's 'stupid', not 'stoopid', you monkey brain."

"Girls," Astoria's quiet voice rang through the room and shut her two eldest granddaughters up immediately. They cowered and sank back into the cushions.

Rose was still amazed at how Astoria's quiet voice reeked of authority at finality. Scorpius possessed the same quality as his mother. Rose had to yell and rage if they were really acting up to get them to listen. Mia had already started to recognize that it was when Scorpius got loud after being quiet and Rose got quiet after being loud she was entering dangerous territory.

Thankfully, the girls were pretty well-behaved, but they were still kids. Hell, Rose was _still_ getting reprimanded by her own mother when they were in the same vicinity.

"Well," Astoria positively beamed at them. She leaned forward and placed a kiss on Rose's cheek. "We'll have to celebrate, then. Draco can't be here; he's stuck at the office," she added to Rose and Scorpius.

She placed Rose's hand in the crook of her elbow and led her over to the couch, asking how Rose was feeling, when the due date was, girl or boy, etc. Scorpius trailed behind and allowed Cassie to climb up into his lap when he sat down.

"Daddy," she whispered in his ear, "why does Mummy hate coming here?"

Scorpius looked down into his daughter's innocent young face. He was startled to realize just how much she looked like him. While Kate was the only one who had inherited her mother's fiery hair, she and Mia both shared Rose's blue eyes and freckles, as well as the heart-shape of her face. Mia's hair was a cross between Scorpius's and Rose's, resting on strawberry blonde. But Cassie, she was almost a female carbon-copy of her father. The almost white-blonde hair, the stormy gray eyes that on her face were filled with happy dreams and whims, the narrow chin and jaw-line, even the shape of her forehead and the angular line of her aristocratic nose had been her father's. It was strange, Scorpius thought, to realize how much of yourself you put into your children, knowingly or not.

Though, he supposed that all of these thoughts were stemming out of knowing that Rose was pregnant again and he would have four children to raise rather than just three.

"Your grandma and grandpa don't like coming here, and they passed that down to your mum," Scorpius answered, rubbing his daughter's back.

"Oh." Cassie frowned. "Why don't they like coming here?"

"Uhh," Scorpius stalled, "because they don't like big houses."

"But why?"

"Because then your nana and grandpa feel small."

"Why?"

"Because the ceilings are tall."

"Why?"

"Because that's how they were built."

"Why?"

"Because that's how it is," Scorpius groaned. He thought they were past the 'why' stage with Cassie, where she asked 'why' after every statement anyone made.

"So, girls, are you excited about having another sister or brother?" Astoria asked as she poured the tea into delicate porcelain cups with dainty, hand-painted roses on the side.

Mia shrugged and took another bite of a cookie. Kate was practically asleep and didn't even notice her grandmother was speaking.

"Maybe this one will have gray eyes and I won't be the only one!" Cassie said.

"Have you thought of any names?" Astoria directed her question towards Scorpius and Rose.

"Mum said its name is 'oops'," Mia said.

Astoria dropped the teapot, shattering the porcelain and staining the Persian rug with tea.

"Aw, shit," Rose mumbled.

"Shit!" Cassie said.


	46. Chapter 45

**Sorry I've been gone so long, but here's an update! (Finally...)**

* * *

"Oops?" Al said, barely able to contain his laughter.

Scorpius nodded, not even bothering to try not to let out his guffaws.

"Oh, shut it," Rose hit Al's arm, but smiled herself.

"What did Astoria say?" Jessie asked.

Scorpius moaned and slid down in his seat, covering his face with his hands.

Rose smirked. "She spent all of dinner giving me pointed looks and then on the way out, she pulled Scorpius aside and told him that as a Malfoy, he was supposed to make sure that he and his family kept up appearances and that included within the family. 'We do not use foul language or tell our children how we feel about matters they should not have opinions on'," Rose mimicked Astoria's posh accent.

"Hey, be nice to my mother," Scorpius said.

"I'm sorry," Rose laid her hand on Scorpius's arm and gave him a teasing look.

Scorpius rolled his eyes and directed his attention to Jessie and Al across the table. "So what's new with you two?"

Al shrugged and picked up a green bean, letting it dangle from his fork. "Nothing, really. Oliver Wood is going to start coaching Puddlemere. Bill Redding is moving to the Tutshill Tornadoes."

"Well, you like Wood, yeah? Didn't we go to school with his son-?" Scorpius said.

"Andrew," Rose supplied.

Al smirked. "You'd know, wouldn't you?"

Rose blushed and looked down at her plate, fiddling around with the mashed potatoes.

Jessie laughed. "You, too?"

"In my defense, he knew his way around the bedroom," Rose said.

"You mean broom closet," Scorpius laughed. "I believe that's where I found the two of you on prefect rounds."

"It was one time!"

"No judgement from this end," Jessie grinned, "he could do this thing with his tongue-"

"Oi!" Al exclaimed, putting his hands over his ears. "I don't want to hear this!"

"Maybe his father gave him some tips on how to attract girls," Rose continued, enjoying the grimaces on Al's and Scorpius's faces. "You'll get to think about that everyday at practice now, Al," Rose taunted.

"More likely, his mother told him not to listen to what his father said and that helped him," Jessie pointed out.

Scorpius whistled through his teeth. "Katie Wood _is _gorgeous."

"She's like, twenty years older than you!" Al laughed.

"Doesn't make her any less attractive. You've seen the pictures of your dad on the Quidditch team with her. She was," Scorpius saw Rose's raised eyebrows, "not nearly as pretty as Rose," he finished quickly.

They laughed.

"Very smooth," Rose said.

"How are James and Callie doing?" Scorpius asked. "And baby Harry?"

"That kid is always going to be referred to as 'baby Harry', I'll tell you that," Al said. "They're doing well, I think. But the two of them are still just as crazy as ever. Parenthood has not stopped that. Last night, we were all having dinner at home with the parents and they set off dungbombs in the kitchen. And another one in Harry's diaper. My mum banned them from the kitchen for the next three times they come over."

They all laughed again. Callie and James had always been notorious pranksters, often in lots of mischief and trouble at Hogwarts with Fred and Louis.

Rose loved these dinners. They'd started having them once a week a little while after Jessie had been 'found'. They laughed, talked, reminisced, and Rose had found that she genuinely liked Jessie. The 'Hufflepuff Without A Heart' no longer existed.

"You guys want any dessert?" Jessie asked, pulling out two of Rose's favorite men: Ben and Jerry.

* * *

"Mum, you're getting fat," Mia crinkled her nose and poked Rose's belly once before shuddering and trapping her arms firmly at her side.

"I'm not fat," Rose said, her voice indignant. "I'm pregnant. One day, you'll know the difference."

"No I won't," Mia shook her head. "Not if I have to get fat."

"You and Alex don't want babies?" Rose teased.

Mia's face turned a fierce red with the mention of Alex and babies in the same sentence. "Be quiet," she muttered.

"I wish I had a prince," Cassie sighed. She glued another letter onto the card in front of her, one of the many they were making for Father's Day.

"Which one?"

"I like Dimitri!" Kate exclaimed, rubbing glue off her fingers and sticking it on the table. "From Anahstahsia!"

"He was my favorite, too," Mia said knowingly. "Mum's favorite, also, right, Mum?"

Rose nodded and signed her name on the card she was going to send to Ron. On her hand she wrote: 'remind Hugo about Father's Day this weekend'.

"I want Eric, from the Little Mermaid," Cassie decided, nodding decisively and putting sparkles on her card. "D'you think Daddy will like it?" She held up the card for her mother to see.

Rose stared at the outlandish card. It was bright pink with rainbow sparkles and 'HAPPEE B-DAY, DADDY' written on the front. "Yeah," Rose smiled, trying not to let her eyes water, "your dad's going to love it." She brushed at her eyes and was too touched to tell Cassie that Scorpius's birthday wasn't for about four months and they were actually making cards for Father's Day. Knowing Mia, she'd point it out sooner or later.

"Where is Dad?" Mia asked.

"At work, dummy," Cassie said.

Rose gave Cassie a reproachful look and Cassie mumbled a 'sorry'.

"He's working with Uncle James, Grampy, and Uncle Harry," Rose said. "They have a big case they're working on, even with Grandpa." They were working with Draco to change the will, today being the only day Draco could do it. Once they changed the will, they were out to get the rest of the information from Ophiuchus and Warrington, hoping that they'd cave once they knew there was no chance for them. Rose supposed Scorpius was filling Draco in on the interesting dinner they'd had with Astoria the other night, as well."

"Oh," Mia said. She turned to her sister. "Cassie, Dad's birthday isn't until September. You're supposed to be making a Father's Day card."

* * *

"Dad!" Rose stepped into her childhood home cautiously. She did her best not to step into her house quietly or alone, after 'The Incident', as she referred to it, where she walked in on her father and mother going at it like little bunny rabbits. It was one reason as to why she had no pity for when Ron had walked in on her and Scorpius.

She had even less pity for when Draco had walked in on them, every time. His reaction was always too funny.

"Yeah, Rosie?" Ron stepped into the hallway where Rose was standing.

"Happy Father's Day!" she said, hugging him tightly and presenting him with a card.

Ron grinned and ruffled Rose's hair. "Aw, thanks, Rosie. I wasn't sure you'd remember."

Rose faked hurt. "You think your only daughter would forget the most important holiday of the year?"

Ron laughed. "Don't let your mother hear you say that. She might not understand you're joking. Come on, I'll make you some tea."

Rose frowned. "Why? I'm not upset, you don't seem upset. What's wrong?" Rose knew all too well that her dad only made tea when he or someone else was upset. Or if he thought someone was going to be upset.

"Nothing, Rosie," Ron sighed and pat his daughter on the shoulder. "I'm tired, and I feel like some tea. Is that a crime?"

"How would I know? You're the auror."

"You could've been one."

Rose rolled her eyes and went into the kitchen, plopping down in one of the seats. "So how are you?"

"M'good," Ron put the kettle on the stove. "Your mum's good. Did you hear about James and Callie and the dungbombs?"

Rose laughed. "Yeah, and the one they put in Harry's diaper?"

Ron stared at his daughter until she clarified, "Baby Harry."

"Ah," Ron nodded. "For a second there, I thought you meant your uncle was starting to wear Depends. Merlin, at least that would've meant I wasn't the first to go."

Rose decided to let that comment slide by.

* * *

"So what did you do today?"

Rose curled up against Scorpius with a smile, with his whisper. "Hey there."

"Hey," Scorpius leaned down and kissed her, feeling her lips curve into a smile underneath his.

"It's a surprise," Rose said.

Scorpius chuckled and pulled the comforters up over his and Rose's bodies. Rose grabbed at it eagerly, never able to sleep without something on top of her, which Scorpius made fun of whenever Rose said it that way.

"I have a surprise for you, too," he said, kissing down her neck, sucking and flicking the skin with his tongue until she moaned. "Dad's will is fixed. No matter if this one," he moved his hand onto the now much more noticeable curve of her stomach, "is a boy or girl, Ophiuchus is no longer getting anything. No illegitimate heirs are entitled to anything, ever."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Mia's technically illegitimate."

"From this day forward," Scorpius clarified. "Plus Ophiuchus."

"Ah," Rose said. She pulled Scorpius's head down to hers, meeting lips, hand on the nape of his neck.

The familiar spark of passion and fire lit inside her, and she let herself be drowned in it. God, didn't she love this. The love, the feeling, the ecstasy. Where would she be without Scorpius?

Hands roamed and kisses scorched.

"Mum? Dad?"

Scorpius flopped onto the side of the bed. "I'll rocks-paper-scissors you for it." Rock vs. paper. Rose grinned with triumph.

Five minutes later, Scorpius came back to bed. "Mia wanted a glass of water." He groaned and sunk back onto the bed. "We've got to get silencing charms and doors locked on this house. I don't want interruptions or anything of the kind ever again."

He reached over for Rose but she didn't move. "What? You're gonna leave me in this situation?" he gestured down at his pants.

Rose sighed. "I just don't feel like it anymore." She couldn't keep a straight face, though, and giggled, crawling back over on top of her husband, returning to the breathtaking feelings and the fire she hoped never went out and never dimmed.

* * *

**Review please!**


	47. Chapter 46

Scorpius shifted again in his seat for the third time in two minutes. Rose gently swatted him with the program. "If you keep that up, the kids won't be able to sit any longer thanks to your example," she hissed.

"You've been moving more than I have!" he whispered back.

Rose giggled, "Mia's been moving the most, and she's up on the stage."

They were at Mia's first grade graduation, something she thought was stupid and her parents mostly agreed with. Half of the family had turned out, too. Half of the _entire _family. Ron, Hermione, Hugo, Al, Jessie, Teddy, Victoire, Claire, Remus, Lily, Seamus, James, Callie, baby Harry, adult Harry, Ginny, Molly (the elder), Arthur, Astoria, and Draco had all shown up to the graduation, in addition to Scorpius, Rose, Cassie, and Kate.

Rose fanned herself with her program. The heat was unbearable. They were outside, behind the school on the field, sitting on white plastic folding chairs, listening to the first grade teacher give a speech about the rite of passage that graduating from first grade is and yada yada yada. Up on the stage, looking incredibly uncomfortable in the dress Hermione had picked out for her, with the other first grade 'graduates', was Mia. She kept shifting and squirming and poking Alex, who was sitting next to her.

Rose watched as her daughter was called up and handed a rolled up piece of paper, her little first grade diploma in her hands. She whooped and hollered with the rest of the family there, receiving many dirty looks for the noise from the other parents.

Martha, Alex's mother, walked over to where Rose and Scorpius were standing after the ceremony. "Hey you two," she smiled, "I was going to take Alex out for ice cream and we were wondering if Mia wanted to come."

Rose and Scorpius glanced at each other. "I think the family is coming back to our house to 'celebrate'," Rose used the air quotes along with a liberal roll of her eyes, both which coaxed a laugh out of Martha, "but you and Alex should join us. We told Mia to tell Alex he was invited over after graduation today last week, but I guess she forgot."

Martha smiled. "It's understandable. They're only six, after all. But we'd love to come, it sounds like fun."

Thankfully, Alex got on great with Claire. The two of them and Mia were spotted occasionally running all around the house and the yard while all the adults hung out in the backyard, sipping drinks and lounging on the lawn chairs. Cassie and Remus were battling each other using sticks for swords and Kate was somehow fast asleep upstairs.

"You have a huge family," Martha said, sitting down in the chair next to Rose.

Rose laughed. "You have no idea. This is only my immediate family, my grandparents, my uncle and his family, and Scorpius's parents. I've got four more uncles, their families, and the people we call uncles and aunts but we're not actually related to."

"Oh, Jesus," Martha said. "It's just Alex and I, so every time I see you with all three, and soon to be four, I think about how crazy your house must be everyday. It feels crazy enough with just Alex."

"You have no idea."

"Are you guys planning on doing anything for the summer? I was thinking about taking Alex to visit my parents in France for a bit, but after that I think I'm going to have to get him into some sort of camp or daycare thing because I can't take too much time off of work."

"You should leave him with us, instead," Rose suggested. "It's not like I'm going to charge you anything," she chuckled, "and I'm obviously not going back to work for a long while," she gestured to her ever-growing stomach. "We have nothing planned, and Mia would love it."

"You know, I may have to take you up on that. But you'll have to let me know what I can do to repay you."

Rose grinned evilly.

Martha laughed. "Famous last words, eh?"

"You have to go on a date. With my cousin, Fred Weasley."

"No" Martha shook her head, but a smile still played on her lips. "I went to school with him, remember?"

"I remember," Rose nodded. "You were two years ahead of me, in his year with James, Callie, and Louis, and he teased you mercilessly. But trust me, he was completely infatuated with you and you should absolutely go on a date with him."

Martha shook her head. "Why on earth would Fred Weasley go on a date with me? Single mother of a six year old boy."

"He loves kids. He was head over heels for you, hasn't been on a date in forever, and I think the two of you would be great together."

Martha looked like she was about to protest, but Rose cut her off.

"Na-uh, go out with him or I'm not taking Alex and you'll have to pay for daycare. And then you'll have to deal with Alex being terribly upset all summer because he doesn't get to see his best friend."

Martha sighed and surrendered. "Fine."

Rose felt triumphant and clinked her glass against Martha's. "Let me just say, that I am so happy you are Alex's mother and not some stuck up, pompous, snooty woman."

Martha laughed. "I'm glad we're friends, too. When Alex said Mia's mom had had her when she was a teenager, I totally pictured you to be someone with a lot of piercings and tattoos."

"Stereotypical much?"

"Absolutely."

"Hello, ladies," James waltzed over to Martha and Rose, carefully holding Harry who was holding onto the neck of James's t-shirt for dear life, gurgling bubbles of spit with a smile. "Martha Carmichael, I haven't seen you in years."

"James Potter with a baby. Time really does fly."

"I'm going to leave you two to catch up," Rose smiled, "but don't forget about that date, Martha!" She got up and meandered over to where Victoire was laying in the sun, keeping a lazy eye on Remus's and Cassie's ever growing swordfight.

"Hey there," she said, sitting down on the grass in front of Victoire's seat.

"Rose, don't sit on the grass," Victoire admonished, "you aren't a child and you're wearing a dress. A nice dress, too. You don't want to get grass stains on it or wrinkle it."

"Yes, Mother."

Victoire rolled her eyes.

"How are you?"

"I'm good. Can you believe that in a few months Remus and Cassie are going to be starting school?"

"We're old."

"Ancient."

"I'll start getting the crematory ready."

Victoire let out an exasperated sigh. "Dominique is driving me up a wall."

This had not been what Rose was expecting. "What? Why?"

"Because when Teddy told me about the whole thing, '_with Lily_'," she mouthed the words, "I ended up at her house. And she keeps bugging me about why I'm still with him. Of course, you know Dominique," Victoire shrugged and Rose nodded, "it's her way or the highway, except with Thomas, and so she doesn't understand."

"Honey, I think you did the right thing," Rose rubbed Victoire's hand with her own. "You love him, he loves you. You're happy together. It happened so long ago and there obviously isn't any sort of anything between them, so I think you're good. I mean, look at how happy Teddy is right now," Rose gestured to Teddy who was now a part of the swordfight with Cassie and Remus, grinning and feinting with his stick-for-a-sword. "And look at Lily." Seamus was standing with his arm around Lily's waist, alternating between laughing with his soon to be brother-in-law, thankfully it was the more levelheaded Al, and whispering in Lily's ear. They were laughing and radiating happiness, grinning from ear to ear and looking like they had just won the lottery.

"You're right," Victoire nodded. "I know that; we have the same opinion on the matter. I just want Dominique off my back."

Rose grinned. "Attempting to get her off your back is just going to be a terrible, terrible ordeal. Like another one of the Crusades."

"Too true. So in the meantime, I'm going to go and say hello to Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny. I haven't talked to them in awhile and knowing Aunt Ginny, she'll be ready to skin me alive for it," Victoire stood up and brushed off her dress.

"She'll make sure you're unconscious first," Rose said, smiling to herself as Victoire got up and made her way over to Ginny and Harry, who were laughing and talking with Hermione and Ron.

"Did I hear you tell Martha we'd take Alex for the summer?" Scorpius appeared at Rose's side, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"_We?_ No. _Me_, yes."

"_Our_ house."

"You'll be at work." Rose shaded her eyes with her hand to look up at her husband. "Why do you dislike Alex so much? He's seven years old! Barely! It's not like he's started a war or has a tell-tale Hitler mustache."

Scorpius grumbled. "Look at him and Mia." He gestured to where the two kids were wrestling around on the lawn. Mia showed no regard for the dress she was wearing as she pummeled Alex with her fists, both of them laughing with fury and delight, pieces of grass sticking up out of their now-unruly hair. "He's going to be the one to take her away from us."

"He's seven; I highly doubt he's thinking about stealing Mia away," Rose scoffed. "Speaking of Mia, her birthday is coming up. She's going to be seven, too, pretty darn soon. Nana offered to through a party for her at the Burrow. Well, more of a party for everyone with summer birthdays. She said to invite Martha and Alex."

Scorpius laughed. "Molly's going to start taking in those two like lost ducklings, isn't she?"

"Probably," Rose nodded. "I said she had to go on a date with Fred if I was going to take Alex during the summer."

"You are evil."

"Come on, the poor guy was in love with her all through school. The least I can do is get him a date with her. And Alex isn't going to _steal _Mia away. She'll go away with him, or maybe someone else, of her own accord."

"Because that makes me feel so much better."

"Glad to know you enjoy parenthood."

* * *

**Review, please! I'll update soon, hopefully. I'm getting a bit stumped, so it'd be great if you could review with suggestions or things you want to happen!**


	48. Chapter 47

The birthday party had started out alright, Rose acknowledged. But it had just gone downhill from there.

Rose shivered. She didn't want to remember it, not really. It had been that bad.

It reminded her of the time when Callie, James, Louis, and Fred had set a dragon made out of icing loose on the family one year at Christmas. They'd only been twelve at the time. The dragon had eaten the tree, including all the ornaments, and then burped out frosting all over the place. Molly's ears'd had steam shooting out of them and Rose remembered ducking away from James when Molly hit him with her spatula. He'd gotten the icing from the bowl of it she was using to frost a cake.

Rose stepped into the shower and started shampooing her hair. She wanted to wash this day off of her.

Louis and Eric had gotten into a huge fight in front of everyone. Apparently, they'd had dinner at Eric's house two nights earlier and Eric's parents had hated Louis. They'd called him all sorts of nasty names, demeaned him, had basically said they didn't support gay rights, and then told him to leave.

Rose winced as she remembered what Louis had shouted at Eric, quoting his parents. "You're a wretched, despicable creature who is less than the shit on my shoes from a sewer rat. You don't deserve to be in this house and my son is not one of your _kind_."

How could people be so cruel? Especially when they were speaking to their own son's boyfriend? How could they be in denial for so long? So deeply in denial?

Then, when she'd decided to move away from the argument between Louis and Eric, and had gone to Ginny's old room to hide, she'd found Mia and Alex playing healer. _Healer._ Not the kind of healer where one of them had a medical book and used a fake thermometer to take the other's temperature and then pronounce them to have some incredible, tropical disease. No, that would've been too easy, too completely_ fine_. Instead, Rose had pretty much witnessed her six year old daughter (not seven for another two days) being fingered by the kid she'd taken in for the summer. It was _that _kind of healer.

Rose shivered and grabbed the loofah, scrubbing harshly at her skin. She needed amnesia and an _obliviate_ to get rid of that image.

And then, because apparently whoever or whatever god exists was just having so much fun laughing at her, Rose had stumbled upon Lucy and Molly stabbing a doll with sewing needles. They'd giggled uncontrollably when they'd seen her, leading Rose to believe they weren't fully sober, and explained to Rose that someone named Gessimina Rockwell needed to learn a lesson.

She didn't want to know anything about that one. Rose figured it'd just be better to leave it be. Knowing those two, they wouldn't remember it in the morning and Gessimina would be fine. Voodoo didn't exactly work. Ever. Hopefully, at least. Rose hadn't paid much attention in class during that one.

Rose rinsed off and stepped out of the shower.

After she'd passed Molly and Lucy, she'd come upon Percy and Seamus arguing about Home Rule for Ireland. Judging by the fire spitting out of Seamus's mouth and just how red his faced had been, Rose didn't think that any of Percy's rules and regulations had stood a chance. Seamus had hundreds of years of being persecuted on his side. That tended to fuel rage and a reason to win more than any rules did. It hadn't seemed to occur to either of them that the Troubles had been over for more than thirty years, now.

Rose had been kind of worried for Percy there, but not nearly as worried for herself now.

Because she now had to tell Scorpius that their daughter got to third base today. This was so not going to go well.

Rose crawled into bed next to Scorpius. Maybe she didn't have to tell him… But they were married and a family, so wasn't she supposed to share information with him about their kids?

Rose sighed. Yeah, she should tell him.

"What's the sigh for?" Scorpius asked, rolling over.

_Get it out now and quickly_, Rose told herself. _You never used to think before you spoke._ "So, after Louis's and Eric's argument, but before Molly's and Lucy's voodoo doll of Gessimina-something and before Seamus's and Percy's argument, I walked in on Alex and Mia playing healer."

That made sense, right?

"What voodoo doll?"

Rose exhaled in relief. "I'm not sure. I think those two were a bit buzzed and when I saw them they were sticking pins in a doll and told me its name was Gessimina Rockwell."

Scorpius nodded. "Yeah, Rockwell slept with Molly and then with Lucy's boyfriend."

Rose's eyes widened. "Seriously? How do you possibly know that?"

"Lucy's latest boyfriend is in the Auror Department. Henry Jones, I think. Nice guy, funny, but kind of helpless at the monogamy thing."

"Ah. Wait...Molly?"

"I caught her with some ecstasy the other day," Scorpius admitted. He sounded guilty, and confused. Molly had always thrust herself against all familial expectations, but she didn't go for the hardcore, life-damaging stuff. She wanted to rebel, not get stuck in rehab forever. "I didn't think anything of it, just figured she'd spilled something, but now that I think of it, it looked a lot like ecstasy."

"Well, Molly and Lucy have always been the extreme rebel children," Rose said nervously, skating over the big issue of the drugs. Roxanne would be better to talk to Molly about that. After all, she was Molly's best friend, just like Dominique was Lucy's. "Molly especially, she's always fought against everything Percy's wanted for her."

Scorpius suddenly stilled. His body tensed. "Healer like with a medical book Victoire used when she was training to be a healer?" he asked slowly.

Rose bit her lip and shook her head.

Scorpius groaned and covered his head with a pillow. Muffled words escaped from his mouth. Rose was pretty sure he was saying, "She is never going to Hogwarts because she's going to get pregnant and ruin her life and nothing good will ever happen and her life will be over and we'll be raising her child and if she has twins then they're going to a foster home because I don't think I could deal with two babies and arghhhh!"

He was being a bit dramatic.

"C'mon, Scorp, didn't you ever play healer with anyone as a kid?" Rose rubbed his shoulder. "It doesn't mean anything."

"I certainly did _not_!" Scorpius removed the pillow from in front of his face. "Did _you_?"

"'Course," Rose brushed off her husband's incredulous voice. "Benny Giovanni. He lived next door to us when we were growing up. Muggle, moved away when I was nine. 'Course with him, it was doctor, not healer, since he was a muggle and all."

Scorpius gaped at his wife.

"What?" asked Rose. "It's perfectly normal. _Really_."

Scorpius shivered. "Doesn't mean I want my daughter doing it. I'm never going to look at Alex the same way again."

"Not like you looked at him in such a great way before."

"Please, this is further evidence that he's going to take her away from us. Wait for his cousins or other relatives to show up and maybe they'll steal away Cassie and Kate."

"That'd be kidnapping."

"You know what I mean."

"I think you're borrowing trouble. They haven't even started Hogwarts. Don't worry." Rose couldn't help thinking of what the healer had told her when Scorpius had finally been released from the hospital: how'd he'd be more protective, more possessive of those people he loved.

Scorpius sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I just…don't want to lose them."

"You're not going to," Rose smoothed hair away from his forehead. "We're family."

* * *

"Oh, darling, you're going to have another baby!" Martha, Nathaniel's wife Martha - not Alex's mum, exclaimed upon seeing Rose. She pulled her in for a bear-hug. "Oh, Nathaniel's going to be so excited for you!"

Rose smiled as Mia, Cassie, and Kate grappled for a hug from Martha, too. "Hello, girls!" Martha chirped. "I've missed you so much!"

She ushered them inside and poured tea for them. She sliced a piece of pie for each of them, setting the plates down in front of the girls before joining them with her own slice.

"So, how have you all been?"

"Great!" Cassie exclaimed. "We saw Granny the other day! She said it was bad to say 'shit'."

Martha slid her gaze over to Rose. "Oh?" she raised her eyebrows. "How'd you learn that word?"

Rose blushed furiously and took a sip of her tea, avoiding Martha's gaze.

"From Mummy," Cassie pronounced.

"Shit!" Kate said, attempting to use the fork to cut off a piece of pie to eat. "Shit, shit, shit."

Rose groaned and buried her face in her hands. No wonder Astoria and Narcissa thought she was a terrible mother. Her two year old daughter was swearing. Great.

"I thought I heard someone swearing!" Nathaniel laughed as he spun into the room. "Hello, everybody." He leaned down and kissed everyone on the forehead before taking a seat next to his wife.

"Hi Grampy Nate!" Mia said. She bounded over to him and gave him a hug before climbing up on his lap. Mia doted on Nathaniel, who doted on her right back. Sometimes Rose thought Mia liked Nathaniel better than Draco. Often when they were at Malfoy Manor, it seemed even more true.

"So, what have you been up to since I've seen you last?" Nathaniel asked.

* * *

Ginny set out the dinner plates. She dug through the drawers for enough silverware. It felt different to be setting the table for four. She hadn't done that since James's second year of Hogwarts, when Al and Lily were both still home. Ron and Hermione always set their own seats when they came over; she never did.

Now that it was Seamus and Lily coming over, she felt almost at a loss.

"Hey Gin," Harry stumbled into the kitchen, cleaning his glasses. He eyed the plates. "Who's coming over?"

"Lily and Seamus."

"Oh." Harry slumped down into a seat at the kitchen table. "You're using the good plates."

Ginny looked down and noticed the china given to them by Andromeda for their wedding. "I didn't notice."

Harry picked up the plates and put them back in the cabinet. He squinted at his wife. "Are you nervous?"

Ginny started pulling out the plates they usually used. She shook her head. "I don't know. I'm not nervous. Just distracted." She slunk down into the chair next to Harry. "When do you think Al's going to ask Jessie to marry him?"

"You noticed too?" he grinned briefly. "He's probably waiting until he thinks she's back to normal after the whole ordeal with Ophiuchus practically kidnapping her and erasing her memory."

Ginny thought about this. "I always thought Albus would be the last to get married, or engaged. After the parade of girls he brought home…"

Harry laughed and leaned back in his chair. "The girl who couldn't work the toilet. The girl who's eyebrows were dyed a different color from her hair. The girl with so many piercings and tattoos I can't honestly say I know what she looked like."

"The one who talked about chipmunks for two hours."

"Jesus he's brought home a lot of bad dates hasn't he?"

"I think he brought them here because they were bad dates," Ginny said. "He couldn't stand them anymore, brought them home to meet our insane family, and he got off the hook for ditching them because they left instead."

Harry pondered this for a minute before beginning to chuckle. "I thought Seamus was going to hit Percy."

Ginny giggled, a hand covering her mouth.

"Brought me back to times during Hogwarts. Seamus certainly has a mouth on him. Such brutal honesty," Harry shook his head. "It would get him in such big trouble. He'd say something completely offensive and absolutely true. He would fight with everyone and everything."

Ginny nodded. "Brought the same energy into everything he did."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "I really, really don't want to hear about that." He groaned. "He's sleeping with my daughter and has slept with my wife. It's disturbing."

Ginny laughed. "Oh, get over it. You get to walk her down the aisle, don't you?"

"Yeah," Harry felt a stinging in his eyes and blinked rapidly to avoid tears. His baby girl was growing up.


	49. Chapter 48

Rose shivered and pulled the raincoat more tightly around her.

"Rose Weasley, here to see Healer Mahoney," she whispered to the mannequin in the storefront.

She slipped through into the waiting room, taking the elevator up to the maternity ward.

Rose checked in and settled into one of the chairs with the latest Witch Weekly to wait.

"Miss Weasley, we're reading for you now," an intern announced.

Rose's head snapped up reflexively. Had she checked in as Malfoy or Weasley?

But there was a redheaded girl, taller than Rose and with darker, curlier hair, making her way over to the intern.

"Hi, that's me," she said. Rose could see Lucy's fingers tightening and loosening by her side; she was obviously very tense and very nervous.

"Follow me, please," the intern looked down her nose at Lucy, disapproval evident, written all over her face.

Rose couldn't help it. She followed Lucy. All the way down the hallway, a right turn, another hallway, a right turn, and then a left turn, right to where St. Mungo's did abortions.

* * *

Rose paced back and forth across her bedroom floor. She must be wearing a hole in the carpet by now.

It was good that everyone was out of the house; Scorpius had taken the girls and Alex for the day to go to the zoo. Rose had never liked the zoo; too many animals locked up, caged in with no way out. It made shivers run up and down her spine.

If anyone had been in the house, they would've come running to find out what she was freaking out about.

Lucy had had an abortion. Or had tried to have an abortion. Rose hadn't stuck around long enough to find out.

She'd never really been all that close with Lucy. After all, Lucy was so many years older, the same age as Dominique. When Rose had been younger, that had seemed practically ancient.

Should she say something to her cousin? What could she say, though? "Hi, I'm sorry you killed your baby, but here's some chocolate to feel better?" No, Rose shook her head, Dominique had probably already taken care of that, most likely verbatim.

Henry Jones, if that was his name, had cheated on Lucy with Gessimina Rockwell and Molly. Was he the one who had gotten Lucy pregnant? Or maybe she had gone there to be with a friend?

Rose sank down onto the floor next to the bed. Shit, her family had so much drama.

Lucy had always been extremely adamant against abortions, too. She was a pro-lifer, through and through. It had been one of the few beliefs she'd inherited, and retained, from her father, Percy. She'd always been a rebel child, but some things were so built into her, so ingrained, that Rose knew she'd never dreamed of defiling them. Rose had thought this was one of them.

One of the few times Rose had ever hung out with Lucy had happened to be when Lucy was roaring drunk. They'd been at a bar with Dominique, Victoire, Lily, and Molly a little before Rose had become pregnant with Cassie. That night, Lucy had struck Rose as little more than a rebellious tramp, still stuck in her teenage years, trying to break away from her parents and their expectations.

That night hadn't been so long ago, either. Could Lucy still be like that? Rose wondered. Stranger things have happened, after all.

Molly was older, but if anything, she was worse. Less responsible. Rose could understand that if Lucy had had an abortion she wouldn't have brought Molly with her. Molly would've made a big deal about it (not that it wasn't in the first place), but then she would've told everyone. Absolutely everyone. And Percy would've found out.

Not to say he didn't know, anyways, Rose acknowledged. She really had absolutely no idea what was going on, at all.

Maybe she should just ask Lucy…Rose shot that down quickly. She really didn't know Lucy well enough for that. Some cousins she was closer to, like James, Albus, Victoire, and Lily, and, of course, her brother, Hugo. They all had their own groups within their family. James, Callie, Fred, and Louis; Roxanne and Molly; Lucy and Dominique.

"Rose?"

Rose's ears perked up. That sounded like…She shook her head. What would he be doing at her house in the middle of the day? He had a restaurant to run.

She made her way down the stairs into the living room.

It _was _him.

"Hugo?"

Hugo turned away from the pictures on the wall he'd been studying to look at his big sister. His face broke into a grin. "Rosie!" he squealed and bounded over to her, lifting her up into a bear hug.

Rose giggled. "Hey, Hugh. I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I know; I've missed you. It still feels weird that we're not yelling at each other or teaming up against Mum and Dad every day at home."

Rose pulled her brother into the kitchen and seated him down at the table, already pulling out food.

She turned around when Hugo laughed.

"What?" she asked, a smile playing around her lips. Her brother was so happy, now. It was so great to see. That trip around the world, even thought it'd lasted four years, had done him so much good.

Hugo gestured to how she was preparing food. "Everyone in our family does this. The second you get inside anyone's house or flat, they immediately offer food or just place it in front of you. And we all always go straight to the kitchen. I mean, even _James _does it."

Rose laughed and set a mug of hot cocoa in front of him, a bowl of soup, and a hunk of bread. It was just leftovers from the night before, but Hugo dug into it as if he'd been ravenous.

"I think we both inherited Dad's appetite," Rose observed as she got her own food and joined her brother at the table.

"It's a miracle we're not all incredibly obese," Hugo said through a mouthful of bread.

Rose laughed. "So, what brings you here?"

Hugo shrugged. "I just wanted to see you. I haven't seen you in so long."

Rose smiled a bit more. Starting in her sixth year, she and Hugo had suddenly started getting along incredibly well. They'd always fought before, like cats and dogs, but then they started bonding together against other people. The whole family had always been like a solid wall against anyone or anything that threatened one of them, but she and Hugo had been at odds for most of their young life. It was just what happened between siblings sometimes. They were close, but they got on each other's nerves way too much. Rose figured they could stand to be closer now that they weren't yelling at each other for not replacing the roll of toilet paper or for losing the telly remotes. Without living together, they got on each other's nerves less.

"What have you been up to lately?" she asked.

"Nothing much, really. I've been working at the restaurant a lot. I can't believe how many people want to eat my food! It's incredible!"

Rose felt a little blossoming of older-sister pride. "Of course tons of people want to eat your food – you're an amazing chef!"

Hugo blushed – the tell-tale Weasley blush where his entire body turned tomato red – and mumbled into his soup. "What've you been up to?" he asked once he swallowed.

"Not too much. Alex has been staying with us during the day so Martha can work. I think she's going on a date with Fred tomorrow night, so we'll have him then, too." Rose smirked. "I said Alex could sleepover so Martha wouldn't have to worry if the date went well-"

Hugo chuckled. "I hope so for Fred," he interrupted.

"-and you should've seen the look on Scorpius's face. He was horrified I was inviting a boy to sleepover. Thinks Alex is going to pollute Mia or something."

"If I had three daughters, I'd probably be worried about that constantly as well. James is just lucky he's got a son. Knowing him, he'd be permanently freaked out if baby Harry was a girl."

Rose leaned forward. "You know who I saw today?"

"Who?" Hugo took a big gulp of hot chocolate and wiped the foam mustache from his face with the back of his head. Rose shook her head at his manners. _Some things just never change._

"Our cousin, Lucy. In the maternity ward at St. Mungo's."

Hugo's eyebrows disappeared beneath his crazy, curly red hair. "Pregnant?"

Rose shook her head. "I don't know. I probably shouldn't even be saying anything at all. But she went into the section of the ward where they do abortions."

"Her or a friend?"

"I have no idea." Rose sunk down in her seat. "I heard her boyfriend cheated on her with Molly and Gessimina Rockwell. Henry Jones, I think. Probably ex-boyfriend, now."

Hugo shrugged. "Our family is just too confusing. Too much drama with each person, not even between each other or anything."

"Have you seen Lily lately?"

Hugo shook his head. "I've been really busy. I haven't been able to see anyone, really. Mum's going to go spare on me when I finally show up at home."

"You've met Seamus though, right?"

Hugo nodded, a flicker of a grimace crossed his face.

"You don't like him?"

"He's not exactly who I would've picked for my best friend. But she's happy, and that's what's important. And he obviously loves her a lot."

"Look at you, Mr. Maturity," Rose smirked.

Hugo flicked his spoon at her. "Of course I'm more mature. Always have been more mature and more responsible. For example," an evil look came over his face, "I didn't make a habit of having drunk, unprotected sex as a teenager."

Rose shot him a glare. Her arm wasn't too far from Hugo's mug of hot chocolate. She could easily dump it over his head. If she could just move her fingers a few inches…

Hugo picked up the mug and drained it. Damn.

"By the way," he said, putting his dishes in the sink, "I'm closing the restaurant down on Tuesday, this week. The entire family is coming to the restaurant, just us. So you had better be able to make it."

Rose nodded. "Alex and Martha, too?" She didn't want to leave them out.

"Alex, sure. Martha, so long as the date with Fred went well," Hugo grinned.

Rose swatted him with a dishcloth. "You have no tact, you know."

"I learned from the best," Hugo stuck his tongue out at her and pointed at the picture of their family when he had been six, his index finger resting on Ron. Yeah, they weren't a very tactful family.

* * *

**So, this story is getting to the end. I only have a few more chapters left until it's over. But...my question is if any of you wanted me to keep writing? I have a few ideas that branch off of this story and the prequel, some I've even started writing, and I was hoping you could let me know if you'd read them, what characters you'd like me to focus on, what you'd be most interested in, etc.**

**So please review with those answers!**


	50. Chapter 49

Scorpius brushed Kate's bangs away from her eyes. They were the exact shade and shape of Rose's.

"You look so much like your mum," he muttered.

Kate snuggled into her father's chest. "Good. She's pretty."

Scorpius chuckled. "Yeah, your mum _is_ beautiful."

Rose shrunk back against the wall. She'd just been about to bring in some hot chocolate for the both of them. Mia and Cassie were playing, peacefully, thank Merlin, upstairs in their room and Kate had come downstairs to ask her dad to tell her a story.

"Daddy?" asked Kate. She turned her head to look up at him and Rose knew he was a goner. Big blue eyes, and Cassie's gray, killed him. "Will you tell me how you met Mum?"

"Sure," he nodded. "You know how when you got to Hogwarts, you have to go on Platform 9¾?"

Kate nodded.

"Well, I was standing with my parents and Rose was standing with what seemed to be her entire family, and almost all of them had red hair. And I saw her and your uncle, Al."

"Uncle Albie!" Kate exclaimed. She loved Albus. Whenever he came over, he'd pick the girls up and swing them around in the air. Constantly. Rose sometimes wondered how they didn't get really dizzy or motion sick.

"Yup, Uncle Albie. Well, there was no compartment for me on the train. Nobody wanted me to sit with them." Scorpius coughed when a sad note began to work its way into his voice.

"Why?" asked Kate, staring worriedly up at her dad.

"Because my hair is blonde," Scorpius lied. "Back then, the cool color for hair was red."

Kate's nose wrinkled. "That's stupid."

"Yes it is," Scorpius nodded. "But then I bumped into your mum and when she asked what I was doing wandering around the train and I told her I had nowhere to sit, she invited me into her compartment to sit with her and Uncle James and Uncle Albie."

"Thaht was nice," Kate murmured, tucking her head into Scorpius's shoulder, attempting to stifle a yawn.

Rose remembered the real story. The kids hadn't cared about the fact that his hair was blonde, but that he was a Malfoy. It was his name, what his family had done, not he, that they had cared about.

She remembered how awful the kids were, whispering behind hands, taunting in the wide open; some even got in fist fights with him. He'd plastered on his smirk and held his head high, strutting down the hallways, to make up for the guilt and anger he felt at his family's history, and at the kids for tormenting him.

Rose was just glad he'd had her and Albus for friends. He probably would've been a really lonely kid otherwise. Rose knew he'd always been a little awed at how her family had accepted him so unconditionally, even later, when she'd become pregnant. She hoped that if any of her daughters' friends needed that kind of loving family, she could provide it for them.

* * *

Scorpius nervously adjusted his tie and robes. Shit, this was Ophiuchus's trial.

His hands felt way too sweaty. He wiped them on his clothes. He had to be a witness, and he had to watch Hermione prosecute. She usually worked in the Department of Magical Creatures, especially devoted to house elf legislature, but she'd ended up defending them in a number of court cases and had proceeded into Magical Law, as well.

She was incredible to watch, tearing down her opponents with fierce, cold logic and they were often left quaking and crying when she was done with them. Scorpius could only hope she did the same to Ophiuchus.

"Ready?" Harry came up and clapped a hand on Scorpius's shoulder.

Scorpius made some sort of grunting noise in return.

"I hear you, mate," Ron added, appearing next to Harry's other side. James seemed to drop out of thin air next to his uncle, followed by the other aurors on the case.

"Let's get this over with," James muttered, and led the way into the courtroom.

* * *

"Mr. Malfoy," Hermione stood in front of him, "can you tell me what happened on the night which Mr. Ophiuchus Malfoy attacked you?"

Scorpius nodded nervously. This witness stand thing wasn't a piece of cake. A man's life was riding on everything he said. Just because he wanted this man to end up in Azkaban for all eternity didn't mean he wasn't nervous about what he said. His words could implicate other people, as well.

"We had found the headquarters of his operation in this little house in Kirkwell. We'd been surveilling it, gathering information about what they were planning on doing and we knew just about everyone who was involved. I had just been relived by Auror Greg Michaels and went back to the house, talked with Aurors Potter and Weasley, when Greg's patronus flew into the window. He said he needed help at the house."

Scorpius took a deep breath. He didn't want to relive this. He didn't want to think about this. He didn't want to feel the pain of that curse again, the absolute conviction that he was dying, that he'd never see his family again.

He looked up at Rose in the stands. Rose, who was wringing her hands together and alternately twisting her wedding ring around her finger. When she saw him looking at her, she gave him an encouraging smile and a nod of her head.

Scorpius took a deep breath and continued. "We apparated to the house. Erin, Louise, and Matt were already there."

"Aurors Erin McKinley, Louise Williams, and Matt Djornov?" Hermione asked for clarification.

"Yes," Scorpius said. "I saw Ophiuchus and I shot a stunning spell at him."

"How did you know that it was Mr. Ophiuchus?"

Scorpius gulped. "Because he looked exactly like my grandfather."

"Lucius Malfoy?"

"Yes." One more deep breath. "He shot a killing curse at me. I saw the green light. I dodged that one. Obviously," he gave a humorless chuckle. "But I didn't dodge the next one."

"The spell that caused you to be in St. Mungo's for months and then, once released, to be readmitted frequently?"

"Yeah. That one."

"Can you describe what it felt like?"

This was the moment Scorpius had been dreading. Relieving the pain.

He chanced a glance at where Ron and Harry were seated. Harry was grimacing, knowing exactly what Scorpius had to do. Ron nodded encouragingly at him.

"It felt like every bone in my body was s-shattering. It was a thousand times worse than the Cruciatus. My lungs felt like they were filling with water. I couldn't breathe." Scorpius stared down at his hands. Anger was flooding into him. He tried to rein it in, but was sure that it could still be heard in the tightness of his voice. "It felt like knives were stabbing me, all over. Like my body was twisting in on itself, contorting. Just when I thought," Scorpius paused. Could he really say this? Could he make Rose hurt like this?

"Just when you thought what, Mr. Malfoy?"

Scorpius took another deep breath. He seemed to need a lot of oxygen to do this. "Just when I thought I was going to die from the pain, I passed out. Woke up in St. Mungo's."

Hermione reached over the top of the stand and patted his hand comfortingly, the only gesture that wouldn't accuse her of conspiring with the witness.

She asked more questions about how the case, how it had started, about the will, but Scorpius just answered mechanically.

He didn't dare glance over at the throne-like chair in the center of the room, the chains wrapped around the man who had screwed up his life, and killed so many others.

* * *

Scorpius slumped in the chair in the lunch room at the Ministry. He clutched the mug of coffee, inhaling the steam. He hoped the caffeine would make him feel better.

He heard Rose sit down next to him. She laid her hand on his arm, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "You are one of the bravest men I know."

Scorpius laughed humorlessly. He wrapped his arm around Rose and pulled her into him. His other hand came over to rest on her stomach. "Are you sure you should be here?"

"Yes." Rose's voice was firm. There was no arguing room there for Scorpius, no matter how much he wanted to protect her and the baby. If she got too upset, Scorpius knew that it could be bad for the kid.

Of course, if he mentioned that, especially the forbidden words 'in your condition', then he was as good as sleeping on the couch until the baby was born. Or going off to Hogwarts.

"Let's go back," Rose's hand coaxed itself into his and pulled him to his feet. "They'll be delivering the verdict soon. The recess is almost over."

* * *

Scorpius stood to attention with the rest of the aurors and all the people in the court.

The judge stood up. His form was intimidating. Wrinkles and liver spots scattered across his face like a well-worn blanket. But his eyes were such a light blue they were nearly clear, and they pierced every person before settling on Ophiuchus in the center of the room.

The judge cleared his throat. "I declare this man, Ophiuchus Malfoy, to be guilty of conspiracy against the Ministry, of attempted murder on numerous accounts, of murder of the third degree on numerous accounts…"

He continued to speak, but Scorpius couldn't hear him over the roar in his ears. He was free.

"…This man shall be sentenced to no less than life in Azkaban, or eternity, whichever comes first."

Scorpius was free. Free at last.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to see Ron beaming at him. "You're in the clear," he said, and hugged his son-in-law.

* * *

**Review please! Only one chapter and the epilogue left! Please keep letting me know about what you'd like to see in future stories, as well!**


	51. Chapter 50

Rose let out a cry as she was pulled backwards into the scullery in the Burrow. "What the hell?" she shrieked. She rubbed the back of her head where it had hit into the shelf of canned foods.

"Shh, Rose, it's me."

Rose looked up to see her cousin, Lucy, staring at her.

She wasn't sure if she had any words to say to the other girl. Besides: why did you pull me into the scullery? It fucking hurt.

"Listen," Lucy said, cutting right to the chase, "I saw you at St. Mungo's yesterday." Uncharacteristically, Lucy's eyes darted away from Rose; she looked almost shy. "I know you saw me. Just…please, _please_ don't tell anyone," she pleaded.

"W-what happened?" Rose managed to get out.

"It's none of your business," Lucy snapped, sounding much more like her usual self.

"If I'm keeping this secret, then yeah, it kind of is my business. Did you or did you not have an abortion?"

Lucy shook her head, eyes suddenly glassy and tears threatening to spill over. "I didn't," she whispered.

Rose put her hand on her cousin's shoulder. She didn't want to see her in pain, but knew that she certainly wasn't the one to comfort her. "Why don't you let me go get Dominique? Does she know?"

Lucy nodded and sank to the dusty floor of the scullery.

Rose took one last look at her cousin before guiltily running for Dominique. The two were best friends; between the two of them, they could do nearly anything.

* * *

Scorpius laughed at something Hugo had said. He touched Rose on the arm and leaned in to whisper, "You're brother is the funniest, best cook I've ever met."

"Why didn't you marry him then?" Rose teased. She reached over her protruding stomach to put another incredible roll onto her plate. Her brother really was the best cook. She should probably take some lessons from him…

The entirely Weasley family, Potter family, and all members who had been adopted by or had married into either family, were sitting in Hugo's restaurant together, sharing a meal of gargantuan proportions which Hugo and his chefs had made.

"Hugo, this is amazing," Audrey said over her husband's, Percy's, shoulder. "Where on earth did you learn to cook like this?"

Hugo grinned and blushed. Rose loved seeing her brother like this. She felt so proud of him.

"First from my dad and Nana," he said. "Then from this man in Thailand, and an old woman in India. I learned a lot when I was in Mexico, too," he added. "But most of this food comes from Nana's recipes and this elderly couple I met when I was in New England over their Thanksgiving holiday. It had to be the best food I'd ever eaten."

"Well, I'd say you got it down, too, little man," Charlie commented. "Best damn food I've ever had…second only to my mum's," he hastily added.

Everyone laughed.

Rose glanced surreptiously at Lucy, down the other end of the table seated next to Dominique. She seemed to be alright. Whatever Dominique had done or said had helped her immensely. She was smiling, eating, laughing, talking, joking. And she kept mentioning Keegan, a chaser from Callie's and Al's Quidditch team, Puddlemere United. Rose supposed that they were dating, and that maybe he had even gotten her pregnant. She guessed that Henry Jones was out of the picture.

She wondered briefly if Lucy had told anyone she was pregnant yet, besides Dominique. Of course, she hadn't confirmed nor denied it; Rose had just assumed it once she'd seen her in the abortion wing of St. Mungo's. Lucy had only said she hadn't had an abortion.

Rose didn't really want to dwell on that. However great the food was, the baby was kicking up a storm inside her. He (or she, she reminded herself) was particularly fond of using her bladder for a punching bag and Rose had gotten up from the table four times already to use the loo.

She looked over to see Teddy and Victoire trying to coax Claire to eat some vegetables – she'd boycotted eating anything green starting a month ago. Teddy's arm was wrapped around Vic's shoulder and every once in awhile, one of them would glance over and smile at the other, seeming to just make sure that they were there.

James was holding baby Harry, who was squirming magnificently, while trying to eat with one hand. Callie laughed every time James made a face, reminding him that he'd offered to hold Harry so she could eat a meal in peace.

Fred was talking animatedly to Martha, who was laughing and responding in equal measure. Rose was so glad their date had gone well. It appeared like they were really going to go for this. She'd been surprised when she'd heard Fred had been sorted into Slytherin, but she wasn't surprised about this. The two of them were made for each other.

Just like Albus and Jessie, Rose decided when she saw them. They were quieter than most of the rest of the family, just enjoying each other's company. But she could see the small smiles playing on their lips and how their hands were joined together under the table. They made each other happy.

Seamus made Lily happy, as well. Rose was positive Lily made Seamus just as happy, judging by the beaming smiles he was sending towards her every so often. Lily had a happy glow about her, the kind of glow that came with feeling securely in love.

Talking to Lily, on her other side, was Kate. She had insisted on not sitting next to either of her parents and feeding herself without absolutely any help from them. So Rose had situated her next to Lily.

Cassie was listening, enraptured, to Roxanne's story about a prince defeating a dragon and sweeping the princess up off her feet.

Rose smiled to herself; Roxy had always been a bit of a romantic.

Mia and Alex were arguing heatedly near the end of the table closest to Rose but farthest from Lucy and Dominique. Rose watched as Mia tossed a spoonful of mashed potatoes into Alex's face and as Alex reciprocated by smearing cranberry sauce into Mia's hair. She watched as they both looked at each other and burst out laughing, all argument forgotten. "Oi, Mia, no throwing food," she scolded.

Mia had the decency to look ashamed and mutter a, "Sorry, Mum," before turning back to Alex. Rose sighed; she'd have to talk to Mia about that one. She was beginning to get unruly these days.

Last, she turned to her husband, sitting next to her, his hand on her knee. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "I love you, you know," she whispered.

"'Course you do," Scorpius turned to her and joked, "What's not to love?"

Rose just grinned and rolled her eyes, turning back to her plate.

"For the record," Scorpius leaned down to whisper in her ear, "I love you, too."

Rose smiled and let her eyes close, a sense of freedom wash over her. They were free, they were happy. It would all be alright.

* * *

**So, it was a quick chapter. And there's only the epilogue left! Thanks so much to everyone who has read this and reviewed!**


	52. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Come on, Daddy!" Mia grabbed his hand and pulled. Rose watched on with a smile. "You're taking too long!"

Scorpius groaned and let his daughter pull him up the hillside.

Rose held onto Kate's hand and the picnic basket handles, following behind them. Cassie trotted contentedly in the middle, plucking stray dandelions and wildflowers as she went. She'd been ordered by her older sister to pick up every daisy she saw. Unfortunately, she didn't exactly know the difference between a daisy and every little thing growing out of the ground.

"Mummy," Kate gazed up at Rose with big, blue eyes underneath her red fringe. "Are we there yet?"

Rose almost wanted to laugh. Apparently Kate was like her in more ways than just appearance: Ron had told Rose stories of her impatience as a child. It hadn't disappeared in Rose as she'd grown up; it was doubtful it'd disappear in Kate.

"Almost," Rose grinned and ruffled her hair. "You can always ask Daddy for a piggyback if you get tired."

Kate's eyes lit up with glee and she launched herself at Scorpius. He picked her up and spun her around in the air.

Their laughter echoed over the hillside.

Cassie sidled over to her mother and held up a bouquet of messy flowers. "These are for you!"

Rose felt her heart warm at the sight. "Thanks, Cass." She took the flowers and inhaled. Confusing aromas of dandelions, wildflowers, and grass hit her nostrils. They were an array of blue, yellow, purple, white, and – was that poison ivy?

They eventually reached the top. Scorpius rolled out the blanket and Rose set out the food.

It was so peaceful. So relaxing, calming, heavenly, really. Just the five of them, lounging out in the sun – a rarity for England – and being together.

Scorpius pulled Rose over into his arms and kissed her lightly, rubbing her stomach. "It'll be more hectic with this one around, soon."

Rose smiled and kissed her husband again. A picnic in England, the five of them, plus Rose's stomach (she supposed it counted as 0.7). Her dream had literally come true.

* * *

_Two months later…_

"Scorpius, I'm going to fucking kill you for this!" Rose screamed.

Scorpius just let her squeeze his hand tighter. He just hoped she didn't break it again this time. He'd learned by now not to respond. She just got angrier.

The trainee looked a bit frightened at the sight of his wife. And at the foul words streaming out of her mouth in rapid succession. Worse than a sailor.

Scorpius tried to give him an apologetic look, tell him that Rose didn't mean it personally, but the kid had to toughen up if he was going to work in this profession.

Besides, none of his words would do anything right now because if it was anything like Kate's birth, Rose was going to start throwing things at the healers soon.

Rose panted as the contraction passed. "Okay, I'm not going to kill you," she amended. "I'm going to torture and maim you until you're in as much pain as I am right now."

"I was kind of already in a lot of pain this year, Rosie. How about we just call it even?"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him.

Scorpius shrugged helplessly. "Want me to get the trainee to give you more drugs?"

She really, really wanted to say yes. But the trainee had already cut her off. Scorpius was practically dangling the offer in front of her face.

"Oh shit," she muttered as another contraction started. She gripped Scorpius's hand so hard it turned purple, the circulation becoming completely cut off.

Way too many hours later for the sake of Scorpius's and Rose's combined sanity, she was allowed to push.

"Look," Rose said, cradling the newborn baby boy. "He's got your nose."

"Are you crying?" Scorpius teased Rose.

"No," she sniffled. "Shut up."

Rose passed her son to his father. Scorpius's hands felt too big, too awkward, like he could hurt his son just by taking a breath a little too deep.

"So?" she asked. "What's his name?"

"Name?" Scorpius stared blankly at Rose.

She nodded. "We forgot to think of names."

Scorpius snorted. "Of course we did."

He looked back down at the little boy. What did he look like? And were they going to follow the constellation-Shakespearean name trend? He voiced his concern.

"Do we have to?" Rose almost whined. "The girls have those names. Can't we change it up?"

"Oh thank God," Scorpius said. He hated that tradition. After all, it had landed him with the bully-inducing name of 'Scorpius'.

"Can we name him after Nathaniel?" Rose voiced quietly. If they named their son after either of their fathers, they'd never hear the end of it from the other one. Nathaniel was someone who was completely deserving of everything he got; a kind-hearted, wonderful man who had taken in Rose, Scorpius, and their family. She wanted to thank him somehow.

Scorpius thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea."

"Nathan?"

"Call him Nate."

"Nathan Scorpius Malfoy."

"Alright," Scorpius sighed. He knew she wouldn't relent on the middle name. "I'll go get the girls."

Mia, Cassie, and Kate burst through the doors, hoping up onto Rose's bed.

"Mummy, Mummy!" Cassie shrieked, hugging her so hard Rose had to physically restrain herself from groaning in pain.

Mia hugged her but not as painfully. Kate curled up against Rose's side.

"Girls, this is your baby brother," Scorpius said, pointing at the little bundle in Rose's arms.

"Nathan Scorpius Malfoy," Rose added. "He's going to be called Nate."

Kate scrunched up her nose as she looked down at her brother. "Why's he so wrinkly?"

"And red?" Cassie added.

"And yucky?"

"He looks like he has to poop," Mia added. "When Alex and I have babies, they aren't going to look like that."

Rose and Scorpius looked at each other, smiling. Neither succeeded in stifling their laughs. Some things just never changed.

* * *

_Three months after that…_

Rose rocked the baby carrier back and forth, making hushing sounds to calm Nate.

She looked around and smiled. The warm air felt nice; Hermione's charms had kept the Burrow and the yard warm, free from the frostbite and snow outside.

Lily's and Seamus's wedding had been gorgeous. Plain, simple, and elegant. Rose had to admit that she'd been surprised they'd had the wedding at the Burrow instead of one of Seamus's hotels. But Lily had told Rose and Victoire a month or so ago that Seamus wanted her to do what she wanted and if that was to have the wedding at the Burrow, then that was that. After all, he'd already had a wedding – she hadn't.

Lily's laughter was now tinkling in the air as Seamus spun her around the dance floor, light on his feet as he twirled her from one corner of the dance floor to the other. Teddy, James, Al, and Harry each took their turns with the bride. Then came all the cousins and men who had married into the Weasley family.

Rose glanced over when Arthur began to dance with Lily. He bent towards her ear and said something which made Lily look at him with hope and a grateful smile.

Rose smiled, herself, when she saw it. She suspected it was the same thing Arthur had told her on her own wedding day: advice on how to keep looking and being as happy as she was right then. It was small, probably not incredibly profound, but it had certainly worked. All he had said, was, "Just say, 'Take a break, I'll do it.'"

It certainly worked, too, Rose reflected. She looked over at Scorpius, swinging Cassie across the dance floor as a fast song began to play.

There was no way anyone would be able to tell that he had been a hair's breadth from death, just a few months ago. He was smiling. Grinning, really. His smile was stretched so wide across his face that the crow's feet at the corner of his eyes looked permanent. He wasn't as scrawny as he had been right after the coma from losing so much muscle. He was happy. Smiling, dancing with his daughters, laughing at jokes, talking with friends.

A small coo reached Rose's ears. She turned to the baby carrier on the seat next to her and looked down at Nate. He was gurgling up at her, a twinkle in his eyes and a smile gracing his lips.

Of course, the copious amounts of drool escaping his mouth diminished the perfect angel of a baby picture.

Rose giggled. "Hi, Nate. I think you need a sippy cup to stick all that spit into." She hefted him out of the carrier and held him gently in her lap. Her son. She had a son.

It was still surreal. Half of the time, Rose couldn't believe she had a son let alone three daughters before him. She couldn't believe that she'd graduated Hogwarts. She still felt like that little eleven year old staring petrified at the train with frizzy red hair and her dad's blue eyes.

Rose caught Scorpius's eyes and grinned. He smiled back at her and weaved his way through the crowd to take Nate in his arms. "Ron wanted to dance with you."

"Okay, I'll go find him."

Rose tried not to feel a sense of loss as Nate left her arms, but it was inevitable. She felt it whenever one of her kids pulled away from a hug.

She pulled her dad out of a dance with her mum. Hermione smiled and began to dance with Harry, Fred and Martha wrapped up in their own little world beside them.

"Hey, Rosie," Ron said. "How's my favorite grandson doing?"

"You mean your only grandson?"

"Sure, but he's my favorite, too."

Rose just smiled. "He's good. He's finally started sleeping through the night. Thank God." Rose leaned her head against her dad's shoulder. She felt Ron's hand stroke her hair and hug her tighter.

"I'm so proud of you," he said. "You have not had an easy time, and look at what you've done with what you've been dealt."

Rose looked up at her dad, surprised to see such love and, yes, pride, in his eyes shining back at her. "Thanks, Dad," Rose mumbled, blushing. She looked away but Ron tilted her chin back.

"I love you, honey. Keep doing what you're doing, and you're going to be happy for the rest of your life."

"I love you, too," Rose said. She looked over to Scorpius, seated at a table, with Nate on his lap, Mia and Cassie having an angry food fight slightly behind him, and Kate asleep in her chair. The perfect family. Yes, she was happy. Incredibly, astoundingly happy. Who would've thought?

* * *

**I just want to say, thank you so much to everyone who has read this story! I appreciate it immensely. It's always really gratifying and rewarding to know that someone not only reads your writing, but actually likes it and wants to read more. Thanks so much for taking the time to read two stories and to review them. It means so much and helps to make me a better writer.**

**I do have a few stories in my brain and on my computer that I will be either uploading or writing shortly, so please look out for them!**

**I really hope you all liked this story, and so, one last time (for old time's sake) ... review?**


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